Solving ANY Brain Teasers After This Video. For Real!

brain teasers are one of if not the most exciting type of interview questions they're widely used in many different fields for management consulting to Wall Street to even Google these questions often require thinking in unconventional ways brain teasers are controversial measurement of Canada intelligence and their ability to think outside the box unfortunately it's said there's nothing one can do to prepare for them either you either have it or you don't the special ability to solve brain teasers well is that really true today we'll take on the challenge that nobody has definitively unlocked that is to develop a training approach so systematic and rigorous that will allow anybody to solve any brain teaser question welcome to our brain teasers video the first ever built approach to solve any brain teasers hi my name is Kim Tran I am a former McKinsey consultant and the founder of the platform management consulting prep many of you following this video series probably know that I'm a very tactical person I don't believe in natural gifts as much I believe that everything can be learned as long as we can develop good enough approaches it's an exciting journey and challenge to really test my philosophy on a topic that couldn't have been chosen better something nobody thinks can be learned just like for the McKinsey PST and for interviewer lead cases the heart of this amazing approach is to break down the complex and vague into specific question types what I found out is that once questions are placed into appropriate groups even brain teasers can be very very predictable so let's get started and introduce you to the seven most common types of brain teasers they are illusion questions draw explanation questions wording questions pattern or trend questions logical questions letter trick questions and lastly market sizing and guesstimate questions this is not a messy breakdown of question some questions fall into more than one category but for the purpose of learning will temporarily ignore the concept of me see here now let's get into each of these types type number one illusion questions brain teasers of this type may vary in formats or context but all share one characteristic they create illusions and draw your attention to insignificant details exactly like how magicians do their tricks the key is to realize the illusion and quickly identify the important details you overlooked at first let's look at a famous example of this type of brain teaser Tracy's mother had four children one child was named April the second one is May the third is June what's the fourth one's name okay so are you thinking July well here the question wants to draw your attention to the interesting but insignificant sequin of names from April to May to June many people don't realize that right at the beginning of the question the other child's name had actually already been revealed it's Tracy want to try another brain teaser an electric train is traveling on a 2,000 mile journey from Chicago Illinois to Los Angeles California it has 16 cars with a total of 320 passengers the weather is cloudy and cool with the warm front approaching from the south which direction will the steam blow if you're getting it please put your answer to a comment below now moving on to type number two draw explanation questions these questions are somewhat similar to root cause reason in the mckinsey PST and hypothesis questions in case interviews but since there are a lot of non consulting audience members for this video I decided to give this a non consulting and more straightforward name draw explanation questions often provide you with the weird and impossible situation and your task is to think of a story that explains all the facts the key to cracking these questions is a little bit of creativity and some imagination don't be afraid to tell bold and unordinary stories as long as they do explain the situation in the end for example a brain teaser of this type is the following a man is lying dead in the middle of a forest in the middle of a puddle in a scuba suit how did he die a perfectly accepted explanation is that he was swimming in a sea and a tornado picked him up and dropped him in the middle of the forest a little creepy but it works here's an exercise for you a woman and a daughter walked into a restaurant a man walked past and the woman both said hello father how is this possible please answer this question by commenting below type number three wording questions brain teasers of this type have to do with at least one word that can be interpreted into multiple meanings and usually the default interpretation your mind as misleadingly suggested by the context makes the question inexplicable the key is to doubt your minds interpretation of every word and the question ending in your thinking usually you'll find at least one with alternative meetings that significantly changes the whole context here's an example you walk across a bridge and you see about full of people yet there isn't a single person on board how is that possible the misleading word here is single the context of the question suggests single should be interpreted as opposed to many as in crowding the boat which creates an impossible situation however when you explore the word further you'd find out this single can also be interpreted as opposed to married this yields the answer the boat is still full of people yet they are all married hence no single person want to try another one here we go what two words when combined hold the most letters interesting huh feel free to show off your answer in the comment section type number for pattern or trend questions brain teasers of this type involve a series of numbers or letters with a certain pattern or trend the questions then ask candidates to either identify the next item or to fill in a hole for example what's next in this series 2 2 4 12 48 the key to these questions is to think of a lot of possible trends apply them into the string and see if those trends correctly predict the string it's worth noticing that it's absolutely ok to come up with a trend different from the interviewers mind as long as you couldn't come up with a trend that fits the data the interviewer can't reject your answer in the above example one possible trend is to take the previous number and multiply it with its position so the next number would be 48 times 5 which equals 240 here's another exercise for you to tackle please let everybody know the missing number by commenting below type number five logic questions logic questions are the least brain-teasing format of all usually there is no trick no illusion and no creativity associated with this type of question you can use pure math and logical brainpower to solve these for management consulting candidates this is a must solve question type alright let's try a difficult one during lunch hour a group of boys from mr. Brian's homeroom visited a nearby grocery store one of the five took an apple Jim said it was Hank or Tom Hanks said neither Eddie nor I did it Tom said both of you are lying Don said no one of them is lying the others speaking the truth Eddie said no Don that is not true when mr. Bryant was consulted he said three of these boys are always truthful but two will lie every time so who took the Apple as always please comment below on your answer to this type number six letter trick questions these questions play with the organization demonstration and composition of letters for example what does this represent the answer is coffee break the key to these questions is to look at as many aspects as possible synonyms visual verbal etc here's another exercise for you what does this mean don't forget to comment your answer below type number seven market sizing and guesstimate questions technically market sizing and guesstimate is a type of brain teaser but because of its popularity and importance we've devoted a whole separate video for it find the link here hope this has been a helpful video on this exciting topic whether it's a Google interview or a hang out with your friends you should be ready for any brain teaser if you use this approach to practice if you'd like hundreds of practice brain teasers neatly sorted into these categories you may want to join hundreds of candidates around the globe and get access to our case interview end-to-end secrets program we've devoted a whole ebook on brain teaser questions there are flexible packages for you to get the whole program or just the brain teaser or market sizing parts don't forget to answer the questions in this video by commenting below lastly please subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking right here we've got a lot more coming up at management consulting prep we believe everybody can make it to consulting and Investment Banking and Google are you a believer

Channel: MConsultingPrep Official Channel

Views: 147,413

Keywords: Brain Teaser (Game Genre), job interview, McKinsey & Company (Business Operation), Case Interview, Wall Street, Investment Banking (Industry), Management Consulting (Competitive Space)

Id: l2_IuKaj5vQ

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 22 2014