Case Interview Preparation Guide
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Case job preparation guide for freshers and experienced candidates. Number of Case frequently asked questions(FAQs) asked in many interviews

26 Case Questions and Answers:

1 :: Tell me how many degrees are there between clock hands at 3.15?

The answer is not zero degrees as you might at first think. The minute hand will be at 15 minutes (90 degrees clockwise from vertical) but the hour hand will have progressed to one quarter of the distance between 3 pm and 4 pm.
Each hour represents 30 degrees (360 / 12), so one quarter of an hour equals 7.5 degrees, so the minute hand will be at 97.5 degrees: a 7.5 degree difference between the hands.

3 :: You spend 21 Euros on meat in a supermarket. You buy a turkey, a chicken and a salmon. The salmon costs half the cost of the turkey and the chicken costs half as much as the salmon. How much did the turkey cost?

Use simple algebra. Say cost of chicken = x, then cost of salmon is 2x and cost of turkey is 4x
Therefore total cost = x + 2x + 4x = 7x
7x = 21 Euros
Therefore x = 3 Euros
Turkey costs 4x which is 12 Euros

4 :: Tell me why are manhole covers round, not square?

Round covers can never be dropped down the hole, but square ones can if you turn them diagonally to the hole.

5 :: Suppose I spend a third of my money on a guitar, half the rest on a microphone and a quarter of what I then have left on a kazoo. What proportion of my original money do I have left?

After spending one third of my money on the guitar I have two thirds left. I spend half of this on a microphone, so this is again one third. I then have one third of my original money remaining. I spend one quarter of this on the kazoo. One quarter of one third is one twelfth. I thus have three quarters of one third of my money remaining. Three quarters of one third is one quarter remaining. (1/3 = 4/12. 4/12 - 1/12 = 3/12. 3/12 = 1/4)

6 :: Tell me in a London Underground tube station there are two up escalators but only one going down. Why?

People leave trains packed in a group, so arrive at the escalators at the same time, but tend to go down to the trains in a more even stream.

7 :: Suppose if there are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, Tell me how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?

Open the box that is labeled "Apples and Oranges".
You know that since none of the labels are correct, the box must either contain only apples, or only oranges.
Suppose that you remove an apple from that box. Therefore, that box must be the "Apples Only" box.
One of the two remaining boxes must be the "Oranges Only" box. However, one is labeled "Apples Only", and the other is labeled "Oranges Only". Therefore, the one labeled "Apples Only" is the box that contains only oranges, and the box labeled "Oranges Only" is the box that contains both kinds of fruit.

8 :: Suppose you have 8 bags of sugar, 7 weight the same, one weighs less. You also have a balance scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps?

Put 2 bags to the side. Weight 3 of the remaining bags against the other 3 remaining. If they weigh the same then weigh the 2 bags that you put aside to find out which of them is heavier. If, however, one of the sets of 3 bags was heavier, put one of the bags from the heavier set aside. Weigh the remaining two bags from the set to find out which one is heavier. If they are equal then you know that it is the 1 bag that you put aside.

9 :: Suppose there are 23 football teams playing in a knockout competition. What is the least number of matches they need to play to decide the winner?

In a knockout competition, every team except the winner is defeated once and once only, so the number of matches is one less than the number of teams in this case 23-1 = 22.

10 :: Define the problem in Case?

Describe the problem in the workplace. What is involved in making it a problem?