IF you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and trapped in a blender, how would you get out?

Could you weigh an elephant without using a scale, guess the number of tennis balls there are in New South Wales, or bricks on residential buildings in Shanghai?

If so, you may have what it takes to be an investment banker.

These are some of interview questions potential investment bankers are asked - they are tough, very tough, and some even border on the ridiculous.

But there's method to the madness.



According to investment banking recruiter Jason Hutchins from Anton Murray Consulting investment banks are looking to determine three things about candidates:



1. Are you smart enough

2. Can you handle the work

3. Do they like you



He said that while interviewers will of course focus on candidates technical ability, commercial awareness and previous experience they will also gauge their response to one or two more obscure questions.



"For example an associate interviewing with UBS was recently asked how many tennis balls there were in New South Wales," said Mr Hutchins.



"Whilst you can't be expected to know the exact figure, interviewers want to see what approach you'll take to answering the question, and what steps you'd take to reach this number."



A similar question asked in an interview with British bank Rothschild was: Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $200k per year?



"Not only does this test your economic understanding and thought process but could be an opportunity to gauge political views and dare I say it, any exaggerated self-opinions," he said.



"Whilst these may seem a little left field, they are in fact vital to understanding how you'll consider the different variances involved in complex valuations," he said.



Then of course there are the banking interviews questions that sound simply ridiculous.



US giant Goldman Sachs asked the question: If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and trapped in a blender, how would you get out?



"Bankers like these types of questions, as it makes you think creatively and shows them your personality, will you just be dismissive to the question or use it as a chance to show you're not just a number cruncher and have the sense of humour and quick thinking to fit in to the team," said Mr Hutchins.



Here are 10 mind-boggling questions investment bankers have been asked:



1. If you had five red balls that contained four red balls and those red balls contained the original five red balls, then how many sets of sets of balls would I take to have a double set of red balls of varying sizes inside each next largest red ball?

2. How many tennis balls are there in New South Wales

3. Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $200k per year?

4. If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and trapped in a blender, how would you get out?

5. You have 2 buckets. One full of white marbles and the other full of black marbles. How do you allocate the marbles into buckets in a way that maximizes your probability of picking 2 white ones when you pick 1 marble from each bucket?

6. Explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years.

7. How many bricks are there in Shanghai? Consider only residential buildings

8. How do you weigh an elephant without using a scale?

9. Using a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself on how weird you are?

10. And finally: You are given two eggs. You have access to a 100-story building. Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100th floor. Both eggs are identical. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-story building an egg can be dropped without breaking. The question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process.



Have you been asked a crazy interview question? Tell us below or @sarah_ocarroll on Twitter



Originally published as 10 mind-boggling Wall Street interview questions