How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle--How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers

by William Poundstone

From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability -- qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace. For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies -- and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off your interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette).

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? is an indispensable book for anyone in business. Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. Job seekers will discover how to tackle even the most brain-busting questions, and gain the advantage that could win the job of a lifetime. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun. Why are beer cans tapered on the end, anyway?

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Programming, Self Help, Puzzles, Science

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

William Poundstone is the author of more than ten non-fiction books, including 'Fortune's Formula', which was the Amazon Editors' Pick for #1 non-fiction book of 2005. Poundstone has written for The New York Times, Psychology Today, Esquire, Harpers, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. He has appeared on the Today Show, The David Letterman Show and hundreds of radio talk-shows throughout the world. Poundstone studied physics at MIT and many of his ideas concern the social and financial impact of scientific ideas. His books have sold over half a million copies worldwide.

Reviews

[Santhosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

First up, notice the original year of publication. It's 2004. So, while the book talks about Microsoft being the only company using puzzles, explaining the pros and cons of doing so, and reasoning out when and how to use puzzles, this has now become common usage to the extent that most companies have even passed it by. To that extent, the book does become a bit dated.

The book starts with a quick overview of how puzzles started off as a way to test intelligence in interviews during the initial days of the Silicon Valley - Lewis Terman, IQ tests, Frederick Terman, Stanford, Palo Alto, etc. It then moves to eulogizing Microsoft as the greatest organization on Earth, one that is so choosy in who joins them, and is so successful overall, that their methods must definitely work, and so demand further analysis and study. A classic case of correlation becoming causation.

I'm a reasonable fan of puzzles myself, but I'm personally divided on how useful they are in an interview setting. Puzzles aren't a great indicator of intelligence. Research has proved that solving puzzles indicates only an ability or affinity to solving those kinds of puzzles, and a prior exposure to them. A good puzzle, in the right context, does test the candidate's competitive edge, response and handling the situation, and reasoning and analytical skills. If the candidate is able to walk through his/her reasoning process, it might show how good the candidate is at "tree searching" and "path finding", skills that are needed to write algorithms.

The book, to its credit, does cover most of the above points, and also has some interesting puzzles for you to pick your brain. Oh, and solution spaces (the set of all potential solutions to a problem), clueless plateaus (not sure where to start), uncertainty and disjunction (an either-or situation where exactly one of two or more mutually exclusive possibilities is true).


Solving puzzle interviews:
Device what kind of answer is expected: monologue or dialogue.
Whatever you think first is wrong.
NO assumptions. Ask questions to understand each part of the puzzle. If you've been asked to design something, all everything about the requirements, uses, users, budgets, time, etc.
Verbalize the reasoning process.
"Perfectly logical beings" in puzzles usually have answers.
Validate assumptions and missing information.
Give a good original answer that the interviewer hasn't heard before.

How companies should interview:
False positives are far worse than false negatives. Interview puzzles are thus useful as a negative screen to prevent bad hires.
Each question should answer if you are ready to hire/reject someone because of a good/bad answer.
Puzzles are good when interviewing candidates with not much experience in the applied job, or no track record.

[Himanshu Modi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catchy title, ain’t it? Well the title is one reason I did pick up to see what the book is about… I know… I know… you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover… or the title for that matter. But that’s not what I am doing. Just saying that the title piqued my interest. Plus, there is also “How the world’s smartest companies select the most creative thinkers” as a subtitle on the cover, with Microsoft being referred to as a smart company (which I endorse whole heartedly, not getting into the debate of the quality of their software). And since I am an active member of the job market currently I had a somewhat personal interest in this book.

Having said that, I also loath the preachy self help books that teach you how to win friends, or how to get rich, or how to change the channel on the TV with the minimum effort. Thankfully, this book stays miles clear from being preachy. It is like a person who knows his stuff come and give his acquired knowledge to us in the 15-min coffee break. It educates, but does not bore; which is quite a task to achieve.

The book primarily focuses on the proliferation of puzzles in recruitment interviews, especially for the young, ready-to-take-on-the-world college pass outs. It covers pretty much all the aspects on the subject: the history of puzzles in interviews, the objective of puzzles, their effectiveness, ways to tackle them, and even what companies should do while using puzzles as a technique for hiring along with a handful of puzzles thrown in. None of the topics in the book make you feel like you have read a heavy duty chapter on “.Net” technology. And the tips in the book are actually quite practical.

But don’t read this book if you want a treasure of puzzles. There are a plenty of websites dedicated to them. The book is about a very narrow subject: “Puzzles in interviews”. But the audience for this book is not narrow. Obviously the kids who are gonna pass out of their colleges next term could make good use of the book. But you could read the book for plain fun and some pretty neat insights into the hiring practices in some companies. And by the way, to give the answer to the title puzzle, if you tried, you can move Mount Fuji in 30 million years, give or take a few million.



PS: A little anecdote: A friend was interviewing candidates for a position in his company. He asked one candidate, “If you are in a race, and if you overtake the guy who is third, what position would you be in.” The candidate promptly said, “Second”… It took some time before the catch sunk into him and he sheepishly said while leaving the room, “That should be third, it was a trick question!”

A couple of candidates later, my friend asked the question, “If you are in a race, and if you overtake the guy who is SEVENTH, what position would you be in?” And the candidate blurted out, “Third…”

[Devika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had never exactly intended on reading this book. Discovered it accidentally on my laptop while I was searching for another document with a different title. A very happy accident!

Poundstone not only discusses the interview processes of the Silicon Valley (especially Microsoft), he also shares the entire history of how the IQ tests came about and interestingly how the IQ tests have a racist connotation. The most amusing chapter is where Poundstone is offering advice to interviewers, where it's clearly obvious that the advice is intended for Microsoft.

This book also has a very interesting list of puzzle questions and their solutions, along with the reasoning behind each solution. Would highly recommend it for anyone, regardless of whether you are preparing for an interview. A thoroughly fun read!

[Everson Luis de Campos Moura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highlights some flaws in the hiring process of Microsoft and other tech giants.

The book is interesting, but is not that useful. Indeed, you can find most of the Microsoft's questions and answers for free in the Web. Just google it. Anyway, I gave it four stars because the author makes some good points about the problems in the hiring process most companies use to try to choose the best people.

[Petr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book surprisingly a lot about interviews and how to even conduct good job interviews.

The puzzles are a central part of the book. However, they compose only approximately half of it. The other part discusses motivations for their use and generally modern job interviews. The puzzles are then presented also with extensive discussion of their "solutions" where appropriate. I would recommend to at least skim the book to both puzzle lovers and people preparing for a job interview (on both ends of it).

[Jamal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Microsoft is not the world's smartest company and employs not the most creative thinkers. It's almost impossible for that to be the case given their hiring practices lionized in this book:

If employees of the company evaluate the applicants suitability for the job without an external rubric then a hired applicant will most likely be only as intelligent and/or creative as the general employee base. Non-creative people tend to have trouble finding value in creative thoughts and smarty-pants are only as smart as their specific knowledge allows.

Therefore for Microsoft to be the smartest and most creative company, their original set of employees would have to have been the most creative and smart people around. Steve Balmer and Bill Gates don't fit that *ahem* bill, Bridge be damned.

Smart and creative are vague words.

Paired with "company", they become more so.

Mount Fuji is a mountain.

Mount Fuji is a god.

I'd move one with dynamite, but the other with compassion.

Would the creative smarty-pants at MS hire me if I came back with that answer? I have no idea because Billy-boy here admits in the first few pages he has no idea exactly how MS hires.

Why was this book written?

Why weren't there more damn puzzles in this book?

Why weren't there more companies profiled?

Why did you mislead, Poundstone?

Why did I read this book?!

[Çağlayan Taybaş · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eski ama iş görüşmelerinin doğası hakkında yazılmış bir başyapıt: Fuji Dağını Nasıl Taşırsınız? William Poundstone onlarca üst düzey yönetici ve çalışanla görüşüyor ve iş görüşmelerinde Microsoft gibi büyük şirketlerin çalışanlardan neler beklediğini, daha doğrusu onları hangi tip sorularla ve mantık bulmacalarıyla elediğini soruyor. Microsoft her hafta binlerce iş başvurusu alıyor ve şirket çalışanları en iyilerini bulmak zorunda. Kitabın başlığı da iş mülakatlarında sorulan sorulardan biri. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi’ni birincilikle bitirmişsiniz, harika projelerde çalışmışsınız, 4 dil biliyorsunuz ama mülakatta karşınızdaki kişi size Fuji dağını nasıl taşırsın diye soruyor. Yazar William Poundstone ayrıca iş mülakatlarında nelere dikkat edilmesi gerektiğini, tuzak sorulara nasıl yanıt verilmesi gerektiği ile ilgili bilimsel bilgiler de veriyor. Eğer bir iş görüşmesine hazırlanıyorsanız veya mantık bulmacalarına meraklı iseniz bu kitabı mutlaka okumalısınız.

[Giles Burrows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this again after a number of years. Times have changed, and Microsoft is not quite the aspirational company to work for that it once was. I wonder if these companies do still engage in these kinds of interview questions. The logic puzzles are kind of interesting but the meaningless questions like that of the title just leave me wanting to slap the questioner. The book mostly goes along with the notion that such questions 'can' help in choosing an applicant but points out the pitfalls.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting "expose" on the hiring practices and interview questions of Microsoft. It doesn't convince me that this particular style is any more or less effective than most, but it certainly is an interesting and non-standard way to do so.

It does reinforce that MS self-selects for left-brained, logically oriented individuals. Overall, I recommend.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed thinking about many of the puzzles in the book, but am very glad I've never had to go through a high-stress interview based around puzzles.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun logic puzzles. Focused on strange interview techniques that are apparently more common for engineering jobs, but a fun read and great puzzles.

[Mirek Kukla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poundstone (awesome name) is a accessible writer, and this book is full of awesome advice for both interviewers and interviewees. If you're either hiring or applying for a job at a startup - or even anywhere in software industry - this book is an a must-read. If not, it's still a treat. It's chock-full full of awesome puzzle solving advice, and presents a number of rather clever puzzles. The advice given here - on interviewing and critical thinking - is concrete and actionable. While some sections feel a bit out of place, on the whole, this book accessible and fun.

Brief History of IQ Testing
"How Would You Move Mt Fuji" starts off by giving you a history of the "logic puzzle as an interview technique." This is probably the least relevant portion of the book. Poundstone traces the history of IQ testing, and discusses the various guises under which "intelligence tests" have been used as a "hiring filter" - for better or for worse. While it's all pretty interesting, it feels a bit out of place. The meat of the book is about logic puzzles, interviews, and their intersection, so feel free to skip the entire second chapter.

Advice for the Interviewer: Obtain Useful Information
Poundstone offers traditional interviewers the following challenge: "Is there any concievable answer to a traditional interview question that would cause you to want to hire someone on that answer alone? ... to not want to hire someone?" And if not, why is the point of the question?

This is especially important since, as Poundstone emphasizes, your final assessment of an interviewee correlates very strongly with your first impression (there are a number of convincing studies concluding as much). Thus, vague questions only make it easier to confirm your initial snap judgement. This advice is applicable to all interviews - not just "puzzle interviews." The important lesson here is: try to obtain information you can use. Does the question tell you something that helps you make a hiring decision? If not, it's probably not a good question.

Puzzle Interviews Are a Filter to Prevent Bad Hires
Puzzle interviews are a way of making sure you don't hire the wrong people. Poundstone states that a good interview puzzle should be easy enough that you're willing to reject someone who doesn't solve it. Let's take Poundstone at this word, and assume that puzzle questions are a good way of filtering bad people. Why is this useful? Simply because a false positive is much worse then a false negative. It's much more damaging to hire a bad employee than it is to pass up a good one. For this reason, ask questions where you're willing to reject someone who doesn't solve it.

When not to Ask Puzzles In an Interview
Poundstone emphasizes that puzzles are only a useful interview tool in professions where the required skillset changes fast. Programming is one such profession. For instance, let's say you hire a programmer because he's a Java wizard. This is all well and good, but this skill might become obsolete no more than two month later, when you need him to start coding in Python. A puzzle question is a good way to gauge someone's ability to engage in critical thinking in a domain-independent way.

Similarly, puzzle interviews are useful at a startup, where responsibilities a constantly shifting and uncertainty rules. Last week, you thought your startup was working on building the next great gardening app; since then, you've discovered there's not much money in the gardening app market. However, in the process of trying to build your app, you learned that HomeDepo is willing to pay you big bucks to make an app for their inventory system. Your entire business plan has changed more of less overnight. A startup employee needs to be able to push forwards in the face of striking uncertainty, and puzzle questions are one way of gauging a candidates ability identify essential elements in a situation that is fundamentally ill defined.

Importantly, this means you shouldn't use puzzles in interviews for a profession where particular stills are what matter - accountant, wedding planner, surgeon, etc.

Advice for the Interviewee: ask yourself - should this be a Monologue or Dialogue?
The first thing an interviewee should ask themselves when asked a "puzzle-like" question is: does this question anticipate a monologue or a dialog? For a legitimate "puzzle" question, you're generally expected to provide a monologue. In this case, you've been given all the info you need, and anything missing is part of the puzzle. You're expected to provide and answer in light of this missing information.

On the other hand, if you're given vague instructions, you're likely be expected to engage in a dialogue. Here, you want to ask good questions. For instance, let's say the interviewer asks, "how would you design a toaster?" This is not a puzzle question, and if you delve straight into an answer, you have failed. Instead, ask questions like, "who am I designing this for? What are my budget constraints?" and so forth.

Advice for the Interviewee: How to Tackle Puzzle Questions
When faced with a "puzzle question," many people don't know where to begin. Poundstone gives some awesome advice here: start off by explaining why the "obvious" solution is wrong - because the obvious solution almost always is wrong. In the process of figuring out why, you just might arrive at the correct answer.

Oftentimes, preliminary thinking leads to proofs of impossibility. This is a good place to look for assumptions to loosen. You'll almost never be asked an impossible question, so start questioning your assumptions - one of them must be wrong. In general, this is the best way to proceed if you're stuck: question your assumption. List them one by one, and try removing them, in order of importance (that is, loosen the least certain assumptions first).

And you often will get stuck. For this reason, you must operate on two levels: one thread tackiling the problem, and another monitoring progress. You need to know when to step back and try another approach. Don't get stuck stubbornly wrestling a dead end.

Two Cool Puzzles
How many points are there on the globe where, by walking one mile south, one mile east, and one mile north, you will reach the place where you started? (Hint: there is at least one - where is it? In addition the obvious one, there's an infinite number of other places. These make the question tricky.)

How do you cut a rectangular cake into two equal pieces when someone has already removed a rectangular piece from it? The removed piece can be of any size or orientation. You are only allowed one straight cut. (Think outside the box on this one)

[Sum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this on my friends book shelf and thought this book could help me with thinking more laterally. Indeed I think it did, except I didn’t expect so many actual questions. There are LOADS.

The introduction was insightful because I never acknowledged that for a big company like Microsoft or any other - they get tonnes of applications and hiring the wrong person is both costly and expensive. However, many of the questions that companies ask in terms of logic puzzles are based on IQ which is a flawed concept in itself.

The main take home message for how to answer these seemingly impossible questions such as “how would you move Mount Fuji?” is to embrace that there is no right answer, and that you might need to ask more questions (or make sensible assumptions). Often the interviewer will be more interested in how you think and get to the solution rather than what it is.

I definitely know how to think about such puzzles a little more now but NEED more practice if I am ever to master the art of answering such a question

[Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a little puzzled by the 3.5 rating it is at. It might be because it is a bit dated and it is kind of hard to define what you will get out of this book, it explains the lower average rating.

As a software engineer and fan of puzzles and having encountered puzzles in interviews, I definitely found the book interesting. The book goes into a little history of origins of IQ concept, attempts to measure intelligence, via puzzles and interviews. The commentary on each aspect is logical and I agree with almost everything.

Atleast half of the puzzles are interesting. Most of these I had come across during lateral hire interview preps. I was indeed asked one of the weird themed question in my very first interview in college placements: How would you find the total number of rooms in a hotel? It was obviously a quant start-up which had shortlisted 10 candidates (flex) on the basis of an aptitude test. But since I had no preparation for those kind of interviews, I resorted to saying I will tip the help. ;)

If you are a fan of puzzles, you might find an interesting read.

[Oleksandr Stefanovskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How Would You Move Mount Fuji?" by William Poundstone is an excellent book that explores the quirky and fascinating world of interview puzzles and brainteasers. The book is primarily aimed at those preparing for technical job interviews, but it is also an excellent read for anyone who enjoys solving puzzles and riddles.

Overall, "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?" is an engaging and thought-provoking book worth reading for anyone interested in puzzles and problem-solving. The book is written in a clear and accessible style, making it easy to understand and follow along with the puzzles. Whether you're preparing for a technical job interview or enjoy solving puzzles, this book will surely entertain and enlighten you.

[anna b · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considered it finished, I'll catch up with all the answers later. I enjoy solving a good puzzle so I'd want to see how they are being applied at interviews. Essentially, puzzles are not a good way to determine a candidate at an interview process. I liked the part where the author talked about what makes an effective interview and wished there's more on that. If you like puzzles, read this book just for the puzzles and possible ways to solve them. If you are looking to conduct good interviews, go elsewhere.

[Brett Goble · Rating 5 out of 5]

given the title, this may sound like an uninteresting read, but such an initial observation is wholly wrong. i bought this book on a whim in nyc because it was on sale and because i wanted a souvenir i wouldn’t just throw away with the passage of time and this book has not disappointed. the book dissects power relationships within companies and shows you how to tackle all kinds of challenges in all sorts of settings, especially a cut throat and intense corporate environment such as microsoft in the late 90s. a fun and surprisingly reflective read, get a copy🤤

[Stuart Berman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agin book to read but you can definitely notice the puzzles in some cases are dated such as using a VCR. I would not trust this as examples of the puzzles Microsoft uses for their interviews or how the interviews work today.

What makes the book helpful is how to approach any problem or puzzle in life as well as how to think strategically versus tactically. I do think new employees going into a new job or interview will benefit tremendously in this regard.

[Simon Ma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has a good collection of questions and i first learnt about Silicon Valley, Intel AMD relationships through this book. I also learnt the various attitudes to IQ testing and puzzle solving especially from big tech perspectives. It was a little disorganized and it was quite conversational, so i thought it'll be cool as a podcast maybe. Should have more diagrams put into it for more clarity but it tries to be both storytelling and explanatory.

[Sambasivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though written 15 years back this book has some mind bending puzzles that are devious. That Microsoft uses these regularly for hiring candidates is one of the reasons for their being ahead till date. Smart people who can also get things done. If not for anything, these puzzles are a joy to try and solve.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated but interesting ideas about IQ tests, puzzles and how they can be misused during job interviews.

I have been in lots of these interviews but during my years of software development starting in the early 80s Microsoft had the reputation of the hardest interviews. Amazon came along later and outdid them.

[Milos Mirosavljevic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only after around 20% of the book did I realize it is basically 30 years old.

While it was interesting to read about various puzzle questions, I don't think that puzzles like this are being asked in the interviews. At least not to my experience, which is good. I personally detest questions like those discussed in this book.

[Dana Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about puzzle questions and how they can be used during the interview process. You should especially read this book if you are excited about using puzzle questions when you do your own hiring since they are wildly overused.

[Sean Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really really fun puzzle book, I did this for preparation for a product manager interview at Google... it didn't really come up at all in the day long interview, but was a very fun read none the less.

[Amanda Kratz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really hoping for more how’d and why’s of analysis responses to the questions.

I guess I should have known from the title but these are very specific to the tech industry and would be hard to adapt to other fields.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read focused on the idea of riddle/puzzle type questions in the interview process. Interviewing is a messy and imperfect process, and the rise of these types of questions have helped employers try to get to know their candidates better.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the book. The part puzzle book, part look at a specific segment of industry is compelling. This and the next book (Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google) are great at both being puzzle compendia and in-depth assessments of a specific era.

[Joe Canas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Ros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книжка вже застаріла, хоча є багато чого цікавого...
і я тепер знаю чого люки круглі і скільки найстрощиків піаніно в світі)))

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Puzzle interviews