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StU
02-23-2007, 05:11 AM
Hello guys, as I know many of you study Business Administration and may be also familiar with interview approaches of big5 consulting companies. I'm talking about strategy consulting at McKinsey, BCG, BoozAllenHamilton, Bain&Company, Roland Berger etc... Do you have some recommendations on going through the case, building arguments, giving useful examples, literature. Any information is appreciated. Do they give cases only on your major, or anything they like? P.S. cases on homepage I've gone through and need more insights. Thanks for helping.

Tokugawa
02-23-2007, 09:40 PM
Hello guys, as I know many of you study Business Administration and may be also familiar with interview approaches of big5 consulting companies. I'm talking about strategy consulting at McKinsey, BCG, BoozAllenHamilton, Bain&Company, Roland Berger etc... Do you have some recommendations on going through the case, building arguments, giving useful examples, literature. Any information is appreciated. Do they give cases only on your major, or anything they like? P.S. cases on homepage I've gone through and need more insights. Thanks for helping.

Studentin,
1. At McKinsey they call it Top Management Consulting, NOT Strategy Consulting - this is what I've heard at their career building conference in Tokyo.
2. There was Big5 for audit, but never heard of Big5 for consulting firms.
3. McKinsey and BCG in Japan, usually (from fresh graduates) recruit about 25-30 people a year. The number of applicants from top 6 universities exceeds 2500. So, as a first step to cut down this number, they initiate a general test like GMAT - 70 questions; time limit is 50 minutes.
4. Situational questions (or cases) they give, usually have NO relation to your major.
5. The cases I had at discussions/interviews:
a- how many 100 yen coins would fit in this room?
b- how many cockroaches are there in Tokyo?
c- how would you organize a university campus festival in the autumn of 2005?
d- if you were a football (soccer) team coach, what is the first and most important thing you do with your team?

Good luck!

StU
02-24-2007, 05:41 AM
dear Tocugawa - thanks for sharing your experience. Ty byl prav naschet Top management consulting. Chto oni mne soobshili - budet several rounds of interview with business cases like: _____________________________________________ You have been assigned to work on a product-offering strategy case for Trevor's Toys, Inc. Your team has been asked to deliver a recommendation quickly: you have only 12 weeks (or 60 working days) to complete the project. You must use your time wisely if you’re to deliver maximum value for Trevor's Toys. Company Background Trevor's Toys is a regional toy retailer focused on the high-tech toy market in the United States. It generated $600 million in revenue last year from 30 stores located primarily in urban areas throughout the Northeast and the Midwest. Management has considered expanding its product offering to include low-tech toys a number of times, but has never been convinced that it was making a fully informed decision. Revenue growth for the company has historically been strong, although it has slowed in the last few years. The Issue Trevor's Toys' competitors include traditional toy stores and online Web sites that sell both high-tech and low-tech toys, some of which are quite large and utilize both sales channels. Management is concerned that the continued growth of the large traditional stores and online toys sites will erode its customer base over time unless Trevor's offers a full selection of toys. Your task is to analyze the decision facing management at Trevor's Toys. Your first step is to frame your analysis, decide which aspects of it are most important, and then ask questions about the most relevant topics. Afterward, you'll develop a recommendation and a rationale to support it. __________________________________________ Tak vot kakie budut soveti? One more question: how did u structure your answers? a- how many 100 yen coins would fit in this room? b- how many cockroaches are there in Tokyo? c- how would you organize a university campus festival in the autumn of 2005? d- if you were a football (soccer) team coach, what is the first and most important thing you do with your team?

G_Miracle
02-24-2007, 06:18 AM
Hello. Íà ôîðóìå e-graduate îòâå÷àåò íà âîïðîñû áûâøèé êîíñ èç Ìàêêèíçè!

Tokugawa
02-24-2007, 09:33 AM
Studentin, I'll write later.
To remind you, consulting was not a primary field I wanted to be engaged, but participating in McKinsey's tests and interviews helped me significantly to prepare for other interviews.

Swordfish
02-24-2007, 10:08 AM
Studentin,
1. At McKinsey they call it Top Management Consulting, NOT Strategy Consulting - this is what I've heard at their career building conference in Tokyo.
2. There was Big5 for audit, but never heard of Big5 for consulting firms.
3. McKinsey and BCG in Japan, usually (from fresh graduates) recruit about 25-30 people a year. The number of applicants from top 6 universities exceeds 2500. So, as a first step to cut down this number, they initiate a general test like GMAT - 70 questions; time limit is 50 minutes.
4. Situational questions (or cases) they give, usually have NO relation to your major.
5. The cases I had at discussions/interviews:
a- how many 100 yen coins would fit in this room?
b- how many cockroaches are there in Tokyo?
c- how would you organize a university campus festival in the autumn of 2005?
d- if you were a football (soccer) team coach, what is the first and most important thing you do with your team?

Good luck!


I had the same experience with the same institutions as you are working now. I got asked questions like:
1) Imagine you dont have any type of information on BMW sales in front of you. all you know is the price, say 30000£, what is the gross turnover for BMW?
2) How many telephones are there in the US?
3) imagine you have 32 tennis balls in a basket. all weigh the same apart from one. How many times do you have to run the balance to find out the only overweighted one?
4) imagine you have two companies to analyse, one has higher P/E ratio than the other one, what do you think about the future performances of those two companies?
I am having last round interviews now, i will get more questions and i will let you know of the type of the questions...


Good luck...

OH, by the way, my project case was Vivendi Universal. what would you do if you were the CEO of the company betwen 1998-2003. they gave us 50-60 pages of supplementary information about the company and 30 minutes to read and answer the question.

renaissance
02-24-2007, 12:20 PM
I had the same experience with the same institutions as you are working now. I got asked questions like:
1) Imagine you dont have any type of information on BMW sales in front of you. all you know is the price, say 30000£, what is the gross turnover for BMW?
2) How many telephones are there in the US?
3) imagine you have 32 tennis balls in a basket. all weigh the same apart from one. How many times do you have to run the balance to find out the only overweighted one?
4) imagine you have two companies to analyse, one has higher P/E ratio than the other one, what do you think about the future performances of those two companies?
I am having last round interviews now, i will get more questions and i will let you know of the type of the questions...


Good luck...

OH, by the way, my project case was Vivendi Universal. what would you do if you were the CEO of the company betwen 1998-2003. they gave us 50-60 pages of supplementary information about the company and 30 minutes to read and answer the question.

At least, I know the right answer for the third queston :)

abcd
02-24-2007, 12:39 PM
At least, I know the right answer for the third queston :)

And I,:) for the fourth one

Gateway
02-24-2007, 01:27 PM
dear Tocugawa - thanks for sharing your experience. Ty byl prav naschet Top management consulting. Chto oni mne soobshili - budet several rounds of interview with business cases like: _____________________________________________ You have been assigned to work on a product-offering strategy case for Trevor's Toys, Inc. Your team has been asked to deliver a recommendation quickly: you have only 12 weeks (or 60 working days) to complete the project. You must use your time wisely if you’re to deliver maximum value for Trevor's Toys. Company Background Trevor's Toys is a regional toy retailer focused on the high-tech toy market in the United States. It generated $600 million in revenue last year from 30 stores located primarily in urban areas throughout the Northeast and the Midwest. Management has considered expanding its product offering to include low-tech toys a number of times, but has never been convinced that it was making a fully informed decision. Revenue growth for the company has historically been strong, although it has slowed in the last few years. The Issue Trevor's Toys' competitors include traditional toy stores and online Web sites that sell both high-tech and low-tech toys, some of which are quite large and utilize both sales channels. Management is concerned that the continued growth of the large traditional stores and online toys sites will erode its customer base over time unless Trevor's offers a full selection of toys. Your task is to analyze the decision facing management at Trevor's Toys. Your first step is to frame your analysis, decide which aspects of it are most important, and then ask questions about the most relevant topics. Afterward, you'll develop a recommendation and a rationale to support it. __________________________________________ Tak vot kakie budut soveti? One more question: how did u structure your answers? a- how many 100 yen coins would fit in this room? b- how many cockroaches are there in Tokyo? c- how would you organize a university campus festival in the autumn of 2005? d- if you were a football (soccer) team coach, what is the first and most important thing you do with your team?

Here is what I think:
The Problem: Trevor's Toy wants to diversify its products offerings. Company has been selling so far a high-tech toys and now they want to explore the offering of low-tech toys too. In addition, they probably don't have an on-line shop for their products, so thay have to decide whether they will offer products through e-shops.
Now you have to ask questions.
Probably I would ask why their stores are concentarted only in urban areas. Who are the typical customer of their products? What kind of other services they are offering? What are the most differentiating features of their goods and services? etc.
My suggestions: They shoudn't offer low-tech products. The competition is very fierce there. They can't compete with large stores such as Wal-Mart, Toys Are Us and Target, since the formers have buying power and they will always have more discounts. The company is probably should dig in its niche, i.e. to concentrate in high-tech toys for targeted customers. Going on-line could be a good idea, since the overall $ value and volume of goods sold via Net is growing steadily.
Eto poka vsyo chto ya mogu predlagat' (in about 5-10 min). But you have to know usually there is no one right absolute answer. You have to be assertive and consistent in your answers.
Good luck,

Gateway
02-24-2007, 01:40 PM
FYI.
It's not Big 5 it is usually Big 4: E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte, PWC.

StU
02-24-2007, 02:11 PM
FYI.
It's not Big 5 it is usually Big 4: E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte, PWC.

yeah I know I made a mistake. What I meant - are top5 in consulting. Thanks, I'll answer more later.

forex
02-24-2007, 03:58 PM
Why don't you go to vault.com,pull up the company profiles and do some research.They also have a message board where you can post your questions.People who have gone through interviewing can share their experiences.
I must note that different regional offices may have different interviewing strategies.I have a friend who got an offer from Bain and I do not recall him telling me anything about coins or roaches.Thus,I suggest you do some research about your area or country.

Tokugawa
02-24-2007, 04:27 PM
OK. I'm here. :D I'll post separately.

Studentin, the most important point you have to keep in mind is that during interviews to the mentioned firms they ask questions which do not necessarily require an exact answer. It is more about your approach to solve the given problem.

StU
02-24-2007, 05:29 PM
Why don't you go to vault.com,pull up the company profiles and do some research.They also have a message board where you can post your questions.People who have gone through interviewing can share their experiences.
I must note that different regional offices may have different interviewing strategies.I have a friend who got an offer from Bain and I do not recall him telling me anything about coins or roaches.Thus,I suggest you do some research about your area or country.

I've been there. I'm just kind of person, who checks all the sources available :-D

StU
02-26-2007, 03:55 AM
Studentin,
1. At McKinsey they call it Top Management Consulting, NOT Strategy Consulting - this is what I've heard at their career building conference in Tokyo.



Btw, at vault.com they call them Top Management & Strategy Consulting Firms.

StU
02-27-2007, 02:31 AM
They told me: there are two rounds of interviews - both case interviews. What I understood - there 2 case types: situational cases and business cases. Can you describe approach to structure an answer to situational cases? :?

StU
02-27-2007, 09:24 AM
here is the source:


Companies and organizations hire consultants to strategize solutions to business, organizational, or industry specific problems. The value in hiring a consultant is a fresh perspective, objectivity, and/or a specific knowledge base or expertise. In the 1990’s the consulting industry was at its peak with the rise of Dot coms. In general the consulting industry has experienced a decline similar to that of the Dot coms. The economy has greatly affected the use of consultants. The Consulting Industry can be divided into the following areas:
�� Management Consulting: Focus is on how a company or organization works to achieve its stated goals. This can include working on strategy, operations, and information technology.
�� Strategy Consulting: Focus is on identifying the direction, goals, and growth of a company or organization within a specific industry.
�� Information Technology (IT) Consulting: Focus is on using technology to help an organization become more efficient and achieve its goals.
�� Industry Specific Consulting: Focus is on a specific industry and can include strategy, management, IT, scientific or technical consulting.

Gateway
02-27-2007, 10:14 AM
They told me: there are two rounds of interviews - both case interviews. What I understood - there 2 case types: situational cases and business cases. Can you describe approach to structure an answer to situational cases? :?

Studentin, I thought this article would be useful for you:


Situational Job Interviews
In situational interviewing, job-seekers are asked to respond to a specific situation they may face on the job, and some aspects of it are similar to behavioral interviews. These types of questions are designed to draw out more of your analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as how you handle problems with short notice and minimal preparation.
Situational interviews are similar to behavioral interviews, except while behavioral focus on a past experience, situational interviews focus on a hypothetical situation. For example, in a behavioral interview, the interviewer might start a question with, “Tell me about a time you had to deal with…” In a situational interview, the interviewer asks, “How would you handle…”
The key to preparation and success in situational interviews is simply to review your past work experiences and review the steps you took to resolve problems and make corrections. You should also have short stories of some of these past experiences so you can also incorporate them into your answers to show that you have experience handling similar situations.
Here’s one way an interviewer might ask an applicant for a customer service manager position: “How would you handle an angry customer who was promised delivery of the product on a certain date, but because of manufacturing delays, the company was not able to deliver on a timely basis? The customer is demanding some kind of compensation for the unexpected delay.” Or, for a management position, a job-seeker might be asked: “How do you handle a disgruntled employee in your department who has made a habit of arriving late to work and causing minor disruptions during the day, as well as a declining morale among the rest of the staff?”

Source: http://www.quintcareers.com/situational_stress_interviews.html

Tokugawa
02-28-2007, 10:56 AM
Studentin,

Here is a very good article on preparing for interviews written from prospective of recruiters. Really encourage you to read it.
http://www.ere.net/articles/db/6BDAB2ADE5B74BEFB9F115C70DAFB23F.asp

StU
03-03-2007, 08:57 AM
I am having last round interviews now, i will get more questions and i will let you know of the type of the questions...


Pls post more hints... :rolleyes:

ElenaC
03-03-2007, 01:05 PM
Hi Studentin,
i guess u r interested in interviews held in germany and not somewhere else...so i might have some tips for u, as i v also been researching this subject for months:
- if u speak german, which i am sure u do, visit this site: squeaker.net
there r plenty of information on this topic and also a very useful book, called "insider dossier".
- also as what i v heard from my mentor (i currently work as a Werkstudent in Booz Allen Hamilton) the interviews r pretty tough, but the most important thing is creativity, outstanding soft skills and of course numeracy talent.

I am also thinking of going into that direction, but i do need to master my german first and get as many relevant internships as i can, their selection process is an absolutely nightmare!!!!!

i hope it helped u a little,
cheers

StU
03-03-2007, 01:16 PM
Important question: how many time do they provide for each case during the interview? How many cases for in a one round?

StU
03-03-2007, 01:59 PM
Hi Studentin,
i guess u r interested in interviews held in germany and not somewhere else...so i might have some tips for u, as i v also been researching this subject for months:
- if u speak german, which i am sure u do, visit this site: squeaker.net
there r plenty of information on this topic and also a very useful book, called "insider dossier".
- also as what i v heard from my mentor (i currently work as a Werkstudent in Booz Allen Hamilton) the interviews r pretty tough, but the most important thing is creativity, outstanding soft skills and of course numeracy talent.

I am also thinking of going into that direction, but i do need to master my german first and get as many relevant internships as i can, their selection process is an absolutely nightmare!!!!!

i hope it helped u a little,
cheers

Thank you for the link!!!
I just have read Insider reports - brilliant, they also give the concrete cases. OMG - Einstiegsgehalt 60.000. :shock:

ElenaC
03-03-2007, 02:35 PM
@ Studentin:

Soweit ich weiss:

Roland Berger, McK, BBG, BAH, Bain = ca. 60.000 EUR. !!!!!!!!!

StU
03-05-2007, 12:13 PM
@ Studentin:

Soweit ich weiss:

Roland Berger, McK, BBG, BAH, Bain = ca. 60.000 EUR. !!!!!!!!!

May I ask you sthg?

You work as a Werkstudent at BAH, right? Which background do u have, what requirements are they looking for? Did u have a previous experience in consulting?

ElenaC
03-05-2007, 01:39 PM
May I ask you sthg?

You work as a Werkstudent at BAH, right? Which background do u have, what requirements are they looking for? Did u have a previous experience in consulting?

Hiya,

i dont really have a brilliant background, i am just very ehrgeizig :)
I v got a BA degree from our UzGumya though (english), am currently studying in Hauptstudium at Uni Augsburg (BWL)...

Work Exp.:

Internet-cafe administrator (Tashkent)
Intern in Tax Department KPMG (Munich)

That's it pretty much...

Where r u studying currently and on which faculty? and do u have any kind of experience? u know, there r always ways to pump ur CV up with things!

cheers

StU
03-05-2007, 01:50 PM
Hiya,

i dont really have a brilliant background, i am just very ehrgeizig :)
I v got a BA degree from our UzGumya though (english), am currently studying in Hauptstudium at Uni Augsburg (BWL)...

Work Exp.:

Internet-cafe administrator (Tashkent)
Intern in Tax Department KPMG (Munich)

That's it pretty much...

Where r u studying currently and on which faculty? and do u have any kind of experience? u know, there r always ways to pump ur CV up with things!

cheers

BWL Masterstudium in Hamburg. I've got a plenty of experience for my age of 25 :cool: in Tashkent and in Germany, was kein durchschnittlicher Absolvent hier bieten kann, so no need to pump the CV :D. My concern is about experience in consulting :?.
Ja, Ehrgeiz treibt einen manchmal viel weiter als jegliche fachliche Qualifikation und das ist eben mein Fall. :uups: Obwohl auch mit einem BWL-Abschluss in Taschkent bin ich immer dadurch verunsichert :(.

ElenaC
03-05-2007, 02:00 PM
BWL Masterstudium in Hamburg. I've got a plenty of experience for my age of 25 :cool: in Tashkent and in Germany, was kein durchschnittlicher Absolvent hier bieten kann, so no need to pump the CV :D. My concern is about experience in consulting :?.
Ja, Ehrgeiz treibt einen manchmal viel weiter als jegliche fachliche Qualifikation und das ist eben mein Fall. :uups: Obwohl auch mit einem BWL-Abschluss in Taschkent bin ich immer dadurch verunsichert :(.

Dann mach Dir aber keine Sorgen, Du bist so zu sagen schon viel weiter gekommen als ich! :D
Die Erfahrung hast Du schon, brauchst nicht unbedingt eine in Consulting haben...das reicht schon was Du im CV hast...
Und mit was hast Du genau Probleme? Unsicherheit ? oder was anderes? Es gibt auch immer Wege diese Probleme zu bewaeltigen! :)

LG

StU
03-05-2007, 02:03 PM
Dann mach Dir aber keine Sorgen, Du bist so zu sagen schon viel weiter gekommen als ich! :D
Die Erfahrung hast Du schon, brauchst nicht unbedingt eine in Consulting haben...das reicht schon was Du im CV hast...
Und mit was hast Du genau Probleme? Unsicherheit ? oder was anderes? Es gibt auch immer Wege diese Probleme zu bewaeltigen! :)

LG

Problem ist diese blöde Business Cases :D, ich hatte noch keine Erfahrung damit. Am sonsten habe ich keine Angst vor Interviews. Da bin ich immer selbstsicher und souvereign.

ElenaC
03-05-2007, 02:32 PM
Problem ist diese blöde Business Cases :D, ich hatte noch keine Erfahrung damit. Am sonsten habe ich keine Angst vor Interviews. Da bin ich immer selbstsicher und souvereign.

Ach so, dann wie gesagt, das Buch kaufen und wie eine wahnsinnige die Business Cases ueben! :)

Viel Erfolg damit!

StU
03-05-2007, 03:06 PM
Ach so, dann wie gesagt, das Buch kaufen und wie eine wahnsinnige die Business Cases ueben! :)

Viel Erfolg damit!

Habe ich schon bestellt, weiß nicht wann das Buch ankommt.
Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation
by Marc P. Cosentino (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/103-5822616-1533429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Marc%20P.%20Cosentino)

Noch welche Tips? Danke und Gruß

ElenaC
03-06-2007, 01:04 PM
Noch welche Tips? Danke und Gruß

Kauf Dir auch das Buch von Insider Dossier, das bezieht sich mehr auf die Unternehmensberatungen und deren Ablaeufe in Deutschland.

Das von Cosentino ist aber auch extrem gut!

LG

StU
03-07-2007, 09:17 AM
One more interesting link for consulting applicants in Germany:
http://www.consulting-insider.com

Tokugawa
03-07-2007, 04:53 PM
The following is the list of popularity for graduate recruiting in Japan. There are, of course, a lot more consulting firms here, but these are the major ones doing campus recruiting (might be not a such useful list though...).

1. McKinsey & Company
2. Dream Incubator - pure Japanese company)
3. Boston Consulting Group
4. Bain & Company
5. A.T. Kearney
6. Accenture
7. Arthur D. Little
8. Roland Berger - this company has German origins; I think you should take a closer approach. And btw, Roland Berger himself is alive.
9. Monitor Group - one of main founders is Michael Porter (Harvard Professor)
10. Booz Allen Hamilton
11. Corporate Directions

Tokugawa
03-07-2007, 05:09 PM
Studentin,

You should certainly be aware of such books as The McKinsey Way (by Ethan M. Rasiel) . I offer to your attention slightly less worldwide known author Kenichi Ohmae, who for 23 years was a Senior Partner at McKinsey. One of his new books in English is The Next Global Stage. Recommended to read. If you do not find it in your library, let me know. I can lend you my Safari/Thomson account.

xuesq
03-23-2007, 12:29 PM
thanks for the recommendation

StU
03-27-2007, 04:03 AM
Kauf Dir auch das Buch von Insider Dossier, das bezieht sich mehr auf die Unternehmensberatungen und deren Ablaeufe in Deutschland.

Das von Cosentino ist aber auch extrem gut!

LG

Nach Cosentino habe ich das Buch (Insider Dossier) oben bestellt. Würdest du es empfehlen? Hast Du es gelesen? Ich habe das Gefühl mir fehlen die Fallstudien auf Deutsch, die amerikanischen scheinen dagegen eher trivial zu sein :? .

StU
04-04-2007, 04:37 AM
nachala chitat Insider Dossier - nemeckuyu knijku po case study. Ogromnaya raznica s amerikanskimi knijkami. :rolleyes: V amer. knijkah vse kajetsa takim legkim i prostim - vzyal framework ispolzoval i gotovo. A v nem. knijkah zastavlyaut primeri schitat vruchnuyu - 4-x na 4-x znachnie cifri umnojat - i zapolnyat vsyu tablicu :shock: koshmarrrr. I eshe v takie detali vdayutsa.. tipichno nemeckiy podhod. Da i case daut, kotor. ne podhodyat pod standartnie zadachi.

StU
04-12-2007, 10:13 AM
One Brainteaser question:

if you move 10 km north, or east, or west, or south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

StU
04-12-2007, 10:17 AM
Case question:?

calculate the value of a small online travel agency with 250.000 newsletter subscribers

ThisIsMee
04-12-2007, 12:04 PM
One Brainteaser question:

if you move 10 km north, or east, or west, or south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

I know of a place where you could walk for 10 hours in a any direction, and you would still end up in the same place given the right climatic conditions.

But moving for 10 km is a different matter, and the existence of such place would contradict the known geometry of our planet.

anatoliydaev
04-12-2007, 01:19 PM
One Brainteaser question:

if you move 10 km north, or east, or west, or south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

Bbecause people make shorter steps with left or right leg?

StU
04-12-2007, 01:25 PM
Bbecause people make shorter steps with left or right leg?

no somehow I suppose it is the South Pole, but haven't got yet any reasonable explanation... :?

anatoliydaev
04-12-2007, 01:31 PM
no somehow I suppose it is the South Pole, but haven't got yet any reasonable explanation... :?

This might be a magic place. :) Probably, this is the place where polar bears talk.

StU
04-12-2007, 01:37 PM
This might be a magic place. :) Probably, this is the place where polar bears talk.

eee toshingni ter. :D

(sog'lom avlod uchun chekma ;))

ThisIsMee
04-12-2007, 01:40 PM
One Brainteaser question:

if you move 10 km north, or east, or west, or south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

This is impossible, I think you have got the wordings incorrectly here.
The north and south poles do have their ice sheets moving all the time, and on windy days the surfaces of the ice can move faster than you may walk; therefore leading you to your starting point; but the conditions would have to be exactly right.

Perhaps the teaser states: if you move 10 km north, and east, and west, and south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

melo
04-12-2007, 01:48 PM
I would think at a point near either pole there would definitely be a place that you could walk 10km and end up at the same point. You would be walking around in a circle based on the curviture of the earth. I do not understand how south or north would work though.

ThisIsMee
04-12-2007, 01:49 PM
I think you are refering to this puzzle:http://blogs.sun.com/dcb/entry/microsoft_s_puzzle_a_challenge

StU
04-12-2007, 01:49 PM
This is impossible, I think you have got the wordings incorrectly here.
The north and south poles do have their ice sheets moving all the time, and on windy days the surfaces of the ice can move faster than you may walk; therefore leading you to your starting point; but the conditions would have to be exactly right.

Perhaps the teaser states: if you move 10 km north, and east, and west, and south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?
The the solution would be: Anywhere!


wording was correct. We have to look somewhere else :?.

anatoliydaev
04-12-2007, 01:50 PM
This is impossible, I think you have got the wordings incorrectly here.
The north and south poles do have their ice sheets moving all the time, and on windy days the surfaces of the ice can move faster than you may walk; therefore leading you to your starting point; but the conditions would have to be exactly right.

Perhaps the teaser states: if you move 10 km north, and east, and west, and south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?
The the solution would be: Anywhere!


It is possible. U need to imagine something smaller than Earth. For example a ball. U put it on the floor, so the top of it let it be a North Pole. So u take a East or West u make a cirkle around the top of the ball and end up at the place u started. But I cannot understand how it is possible to end up at the same place going to North or South. I would say thre should be 'and' in place of 'or'

StU
04-12-2007, 01:53 PM
I think you are refering to this puzzle:http://blogs.sun.com/dcb/entry/microsoft_s_puzzle_a_challenge

btw - Googling is NOT allowed :evil:.

anatoliydaev
04-12-2007, 01:54 PM
btw - Googling is NOT allowed :evil:.

There is 'and' in place of 'or'!!! :)

StU
04-12-2007, 01:55 PM
at the beginning I came up with multiple points, so that the solution would be - walking in a circle at any direction would bring you to starting point :cool:.

anatoliydaev
04-12-2007, 01:58 PM
at the beginning I came up with multiple points, so that the solution would be - walking in a circle at any direction would bring you to starting point :cool:.

But how is it possible to end up at the starting point at North or South pole walking strictly to North or South? East or West Ok, but North and South? :rolleyes:

ThisIsMee
04-12-2007, 02:01 PM
Question: You travel 100 miles north, 100 miles east, and then 100 miles south. You are at the same point that you started from. Describe all the places on earth this could be, if any.

Answer:At the south pole. Or, 100 miles south of any point on the circle around the north pole that is 100 miles in circumference. Or, 100 miles south of any such circle whose circumference is an integral fraction of 100 miles.


Sorry I 'googled', but this question is distincttly different

ThisIsMee
04-12-2007, 02:06 PM
wording was correct. We have to look somewhere else :?.

Type it in its original language.

StU
04-15-2007, 05:09 AM
Type it in its original language.

sorry it was really a mistake in my typing.
Here the original: 10km north, then 10 km east or west, then 10 km. south and you will arrive at your starting point ;).

Solution: it is a south pole! The logic is behind the sequence of directions.
At South pole you can only move north, since you are already at the south. :P

NO MORE GOOGLE PLS! ;)

Dilshodius
04-17-2007, 01:45 AM
One Brainteaser question:

if you move 10 km north, or east, or west, or south from this point you will get to your starting point. Where is this point on the Earth? Why?

NASA training camp or local gym :). You know, they have this bubbles, something like a globe with empty space, where you can get inside and walk any directions as much as you want. No matter where you go you still be at the same spot. :)

StU
04-17-2007, 01:59 AM
NASA training camp or local gym :). You know, they have this bubbles, something like a globe with empty space, where you can get inside and walk any directions as much as you want. No matter where you go you still be at the same spot. :)

Interesting and creative!
Btw - Olga Ivanovna sends you her greetings.. ;)

Dilshodius
04-17-2007, 02:33 AM
Interesting and creative!
Btw - Olga Ivanovna sends you her greetings.. ;)

Haha. Thanks. I've heard she's a grandma now.. Next time you talk to her tell her I'm sending my sweetest hugs and kisses :)

On the side note, I have several books on job interviews/brainteasers.. like 'Heard on the Street', 'How would you move Mount Fuji' and coupla more... Just let me know if you need any of mentioned above.