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How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck?: Secrets to Succeeding at Interview Mind Games and Getting the Job You Want
Learn how to succeed at interview mind games and win job offers at A‑list companies, with more than eighty difficult and devious questions, puzzles, and brain teasers
Each year about 28 million Americans begin a search for a new job. Many more live in the age of the permanent job search, their online profiles eternally awaiting a better offer. Job seekers are more mobile and better informed than ever, aspiring to work for employers offering an appealing culture, a robust menu of perks, and opportunities for personal fulfillment and advancement. The result is that millions of applications stream to the handful of companies that regularly top listings of the best companies to work Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Alphabet, Disney, SpaceX, Oracle, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, and others. Tesla has received as many as 200 applications for each open position. How do selective employers choose which people to hire? It’s through interviews asking uniquely demanding questions testing imagination, persistence, and creativity, How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? explores the new world of interviewing at A-list employers. It reveals more than eighty notoriously challenging interview questions and supplies both answers and a general strategy for creative problem-solving.
Each year about 28 million Americans begin a search for a new job. Many more live in the age of the permanent job search, their online profiles eternally awaiting a better offer. Job seekers are more mobile and better informed than ever, aspiring to work for employers offering an appealing culture, a robust menu of perks, and opportunities for personal fulfillment and advancement. The result is that millions of applications stream to the handful of companies that regularly top listings of the best companies to work Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Alphabet, Disney, SpaceX, Oracle, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, and others. Tesla has received as many as 200 applications for each open position. How do selective employers choose which people to hire? It’s through interviews asking uniquely demanding questions testing imagination, persistence, and creativity, How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? explores the new world of interviewing at A-list employers. It reveals more than eighty notoriously challenging interview questions and supplies both answers and a general strategy for creative problem-solving.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2021
34 people are currently reading
1108 people want to read
About the author
William Poundstone
55 books366 followersWilliam 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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 30, 2024
Thought provoking and must read for the new gen. We all have been caught up in the most futile things when we should actually focus on the reality hidden behind the jobs we are looking for. It’s high time we know the difference between what it actually is and what it seems to be. Yes, things will keep changing every season. Failure or success, it depends on how we keep an eye and open our minds to some bitter truths that we need to reflect on ourselves.
October 21, 2021
I have a background in HR and still offer interview coaching services, so when I saw Bloomsbury were publishing a book about interview questions, I requested a review copy right away. How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? And Other Perplexing Puzzles from the Toughest Interviews in the World by William Poundstone offers a comprehensive look at the evolution of the interview, including: psychometric testing, behavioural interview questions, work sampling, personality testing, video and group interviews.
Employers always strive to employ interview techniques that are most predictive of job performance by a potential candidate, and many of the logic puzzles and brain teasers posed by companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google are an attempt to gain insight into the problem-solving abilities and creative thinking styles demonstrated by job seekers.
The author then goes on to present a whole heap of interview questions used by some well known US companies, as well as providing a working knowledge of the answers and a solid explanation of how a candidate should go about answering these types of questions.
"A hammer and a nail cost $1.10, and the hammer costs one dollar more than the nail. How much does the nail cost?" Page 111*
At times, reading How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? by William Poundstone was akin to reading a maths or statistics text book, and I expect it will be most useful to the dedicated job seeker looking for some insight and keen to prepare for any eventuality. Those readers would do well to check out another book I read on the topic this year, #EntryLevelBoss: a 9-step guide for finding a job you like (and actually getting hired to do it) by Alexa Shoen.
"For what it's worth, a 2013 study by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano reported that reading literary fiction improved performance on an emotional intelligence test that included recognition of facial expressions. It's possible that reading about richly realized fictional characters primes readers to be more attuned to clues about other people's emotions." Page 107
Book lovers already know that reading every day builds vocabulary, improves comprehension, enhances brain connectivity and emotional intelligence, but it's always nice to see this recognised in other areas of science and study. From what I can tell, How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? seems to be an up to date account of the job seeker's experience in America informed by the accounts of job seekers who have applied for roles with these top tier organisations.
I suspect that here in Australia, we are yet to encounter these interview puzzlers on a regular basis, but if the US job market has taught us anything with the increasing popularity of recorded job interview videos, this will soon follow. How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? is a good read and I enjoyed putting some of these questions to my husband.
*Feel free to send me your answer and I'll let you know if you were right or not!
* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Australia *
Employers always strive to employ interview techniques that are most predictive of job performance by a potential candidate, and many of the logic puzzles and brain teasers posed by companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google are an attempt to gain insight into the problem-solving abilities and creative thinking styles demonstrated by job seekers.
The author then goes on to present a whole heap of interview questions used by some well known US companies, as well as providing a working knowledge of the answers and a solid explanation of how a candidate should go about answering these types of questions.
"A hammer and a nail cost $1.10, and the hammer costs one dollar more than the nail. How much does the nail cost?" Page 111*
At times, reading How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? by William Poundstone was akin to reading a maths or statistics text book, and I expect it will be most useful to the dedicated job seeker looking for some insight and keen to prepare for any eventuality. Those readers would do well to check out another book I read on the topic this year, #EntryLevelBoss: a 9-step guide for finding a job you like (and actually getting hired to do it) by Alexa Shoen.
"For what it's worth, a 2013 study by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano reported that reading literary fiction improved performance on an emotional intelligence test that included recognition of facial expressions. It's possible that reading about richly realized fictional characters primes readers to be more attuned to clues about other people's emotions." Page 107
Book lovers already know that reading every day builds vocabulary, improves comprehension, enhances brain connectivity and emotional intelligence, but it's always nice to see this recognised in other areas of science and study. From what I can tell, How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? seems to be an up to date account of the job seeker's experience in America informed by the accounts of job seekers who have applied for roles with these top tier organisations.
I suspect that here in Australia, we are yet to encounter these interview puzzlers on a regular basis, but if the US job market has taught us anything with the increasing popularity of recorded job interview videos, this will soon follow. How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? is a good read and I enjoyed putting some of these questions to my husband.
*Feel free to send me your answer and I'll let you know if you were right or not!
* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Australia *
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September 21, 2025Try to solve this question
A Bloomberg interview question In a standard playing card deck a joker is inserted face up and shuffled thoroughly . The card are dealt out one at a time face down until you reached the face up joker where the dealing stops . What are the odds that the four aces are found in the packed of undealt cards?
A Bloomberg interview question In a standard playing card deck a joker is inserted face up and shuffled thoroughly . The card are dealt out one at a time face down until you reached the face up joker where the dealing stops . What are the odds that the four aces are found in the packed of undealt cards?
November 8, 2023
I enjoyed reading this as someone with a passing interest is puzzles, riddles and statistics. I have no particular interest in interviewing and employment but the book is written well enough that I found it all enjoyable and quite fascinating at times. Not being especially familiar with this type of writing I can't really rate it relative to others of the type and so it may have an articifially high rating as its the first of its kind and therfore everything was new and fresh to me.
September 24, 2021
This book a sequel to "How would you move Mount Fuji".
First part, with an overview of the history of interviewing (starting from Thomas Edison questionnaire) is quite interesting. The second part contains a lot of puzzles. Not bad, but not really applicable to Software engineering anymore, where most companies switched from puzzles to LeetCode.
First part, with an overview of the history of interviewing (starting from Thomas Edison questionnaire) is quite interesting. The second part contains a lot of puzzles. Not bad, but not really applicable to Software engineering anymore, where most companies switched from puzzles to LeetCode.
June 23, 2022
An interesting look at the puzzles, weird questions and games that human resources departments have come up with to choose the best applicants for top positions. The author's focus is primarily on the United States, but many of the job selection processes he describes are used worldwide.
The name of the book comes from a question that goes: Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? This is one of those teasers that doesn't have a "correct" answer per se, but helps the interviewer understand your thinking. You can interpret the question as asking if you want to solve one big problem or many small ones. Another answer is that a duck's legs might fail to carry all that extra weight and so it will just collapse to the ground - thus presenting little danger.
I most enjoyed the section on the origins of IQ testing and screening tests. Thomas Edison thought it was important that his employees notice things, so in 1921, he came up with 48 "extremely simple" questions to determine if someone got a job at his company: What countries border France? What is the speed of sound? Name three potent poisons. Who wrote Les Misérables?
Edison was so respected that his idea of selecting candidates in this way gained currency, although, as Poundstone points out, the value of such an approach is questionable. What evidence is there that successful completion of such a quiz predicts future job performance?
During World War II, the practice fed into the search for personnel at the British code-breaking center Bletchley Park. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, from which many applicants were recruited, were already known for their brain-bending questions such as: why don't animals have wheels? Bletchley Park was also looking for people interested in solving cryptic crosswords. Later, the computer industry in the 1950s saw firms using logic puzzles to hire programmers.
Poundstone argues that “puzzle-style questions have inherited the usual shortcomings of interviews. Estimates based on them may reflect confirmation bias.” (56) That is, interviewers form a favorable opinion and then look for evidence to support that opinion. Of course, in some areas, some groups in society rarely get to the interview stage at all.
Take professional musicians, almost all of whom until recently were men (the Berlin Philharmonic didn't hire women until 1982). Some of the reasons for not hiring women sound ridiculous—for example, that playing the French horn distorts a pretty face. One interesting solution was "blind listening" (60). A musician applying for a job performs a set behind a screen in front of a panel marked only by a number and without saying a word. This is usually one part of the interview process, but in 2019 the number of female members of American orchestras has increased to about 40%, up from less than 5% in the early 1970s.
All in all, this was an interesting read about math, reasoning, work, and culture. If you are up for a high-level job, it's definitely worth picking up a copy.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
The name of the book comes from a question that goes: Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? This is one of those teasers that doesn't have a "correct" answer per se, but helps the interviewer understand your thinking. You can interpret the question as asking if you want to solve one big problem or many small ones. Another answer is that a duck's legs might fail to carry all that extra weight and so it will just collapse to the ground - thus presenting little danger.
I most enjoyed the section on the origins of IQ testing and screening tests. Thomas Edison thought it was important that his employees notice things, so in 1921, he came up with 48 "extremely simple" questions to determine if someone got a job at his company: What countries border France? What is the speed of sound? Name three potent poisons. Who wrote Les Misérables?
Edison was so respected that his idea of selecting candidates in this way gained currency, although, as Poundstone points out, the value of such an approach is questionable. What evidence is there that successful completion of such a quiz predicts future job performance?
During World War II, the practice fed into the search for personnel at the British code-breaking center Bletchley Park. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, from which many applicants were recruited, were already known for their brain-bending questions such as: why don't animals have wheels? Bletchley Park was also looking for people interested in solving cryptic crosswords. Later, the computer industry in the 1950s saw firms using logic puzzles to hire programmers.
Poundstone argues that “puzzle-style questions have inherited the usual shortcomings of interviews. Estimates based on them may reflect confirmation bias.” (56) That is, interviewers form a favorable opinion and then look for evidence to support that opinion. Of course, in some areas, some groups in society rarely get to the interview stage at all.
Take professional musicians, almost all of whom until recently were men (the Berlin Philharmonic didn't hire women until 1982). Some of the reasons for not hiring women sound ridiculous—for example, that playing the French horn distorts a pretty face. One interesting solution was "blind listening" (60). A musician applying for a job performs a set behind a screen in front of a panel marked only by a number and without saying a word. This is usually one part of the interview process, but in 2019 the number of female members of American orchestras has increased to about 40%, up from less than 5% in the early 1970s.
All in all, this was an interesting read about math, reasoning, work, and culture. If you are up for a high-level job, it's definitely worth picking up a copy.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
September 16, 2021
Don't take the audiobook
I took the audiobook.
It's ok for the first (interesting) part about the history of job interview.
For the accumulation of puzzles, you realize that you would have been better with the book version, a piece of paper and a pencil, try to solve them by yourself.
So in the end I was bored by the unending succession of puzzle, but it is certainly my fault. Sorry William.
I took the audiobook.
It's ok for the first (interesting) part about the history of job interview.
For the accumulation of puzzles, you realize that you would have been better with the book version, a piece of paper and a pencil, try to solve them by yourself.
So in the end I was bored by the unending succession of puzzle, but it is certainly my fault. Sorry William.
September 27, 2021
I preferred the first section with the history of hiring. These modern games were interesting, and I had no idea interviews were moving in this direction. This book will give some tricks so that if you need to interview you are less surprised. All interviews are flawed but hard to believe job offers now come down to weird little riddles like when Bilbo meets Gollum.
December 5, 2021
More of a series of riddles and brain teaser that reads like a cribsheet or a means for cramming for a test (read: interview) than a lucid compilation of interviewing Q&A. I was hoping to get more into the psychology of questions and how to assess personalities, which is peppered in there lightly, but that definitely is not the scope here.
February 23, 2022
Short review; wasn't really for me. I enjoyed the history and analyses of interview questions but there was too much maths. Would recommend to puzzle solvers and maths geeks.
Longer review in a blog post.
Longer review in a blog post.
July 31, 2023
Quite useless if you're looking for genuine strategies to fight horse sized ducks but otherwise a really fascinating read. Especially as I've always loved riddles and brainteasers and I am always wanting to improve my problem solving and creative thinking.
June 3, 2021
The teen swiped this book and is re-reading it. Evidently I will never get to read. I got 2 thumbs up when I asked how the book was rated.
January 21, 2023
Easy read, a great walk through history of how these interview questions started becoming more common.
Great examples of what kind of curveball questions companies throw at you to get you thinking
Great examples of what kind of curveball questions companies throw at you to get you thinking
September 19, 2024
Re-rating this cause I saw it on my feed and remembered how trash it was.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews