Sometimes the hiring practices of even the most successful companies can feel outright wonky.

There can be strange interview questions that seem to have no answers, and standards that will knock candidates out of the race right off the starting line.

Google used to be a big example of this, with a reputation for head-scratching questions.

In fact, some of Google's questions were so bizarre, they were eventually banned from being asked altogether.

In 2009, Lewis Lin, a job coach in Seattle, put together a list of 140 questions his clients were asked by Google. We've picked 16 of the wildest.

Future Google employees should be grateful these questions are no longer on the table.

Sean Wolfe, Nathan McAlone, and Caroline Moss contributed reporting on earlier versions of this article.