Employer forces candidate to complete bizarre intelligence tests for management position: 'At this point the job market has become a joke'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jun 13, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Should you have to complete a brainteaser in order to get a job?

It's understandable that a potential employer might want to know how your brain works. It's part of why they want to hire you. They want to know what knocks around your noggin and how. They want to know how you might solve certain problems in the workplace and how you might tackle the challenges of the job. There are a few ways that employers do this, beyond just asking for your resume and cover letter. Maybe once you're in an interview, they ask you pointed questions about experiences you've had, or even problems you might come across. Interviews are one thing. But tests are a completely other kind of gambit. What are you supposed to do when you wind up feeling like you're being bamboozled just to get hired? Nobody wants to feel like they're being taken advantage of, and nobody wants to be made a fool. But that's what was happening in this story shared to the antiwork subreddit. The things that they put you through just to get the job should be interrogated to the highest degree. The hoops you have to jump through are already crazy enough. Nobody wants to do even more than they have to. But a job application can also be a great way to have insight into a company before you even work there. You can get a sense of what it would be like to spend your days with them, and you might not enjoy it. 

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    оо
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A man works on his laptop, confused at something on the screen

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    Ridiculous set of questions I got for a management position. I didn't complete it.

    16 09:47 15. Dan can walk 100 meters in 1 minute. Peter can walk 400 meters in 5 minutes. If they start off together, how far ahead will they be of each other after 10 minutes? * a. 100m b. 200m c. 300m d. 400m e. 500m 17 16. If 10 hens can lay 100 eggs in 10 days, how long would it take 4 hens to lay 28 eggs?*
    via Engineer9918
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    09:37 11. Which of the figures in the options completes the sequence of figures shown below? * A ?
    via Engineer9918
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    I recently applied to a management role and in the email it had a timed test for 15 mins for a series of questions. Now this is a complete waste of my time so I didn't complete the test at all. At this point the job market has become a joke.
    via Engineer9918

  • Sometimes you have to reach out and ask for what you want. The person in this story was trying to do that, but wasn't sure how. When you're looking for a job, you can feel like you have none of the power, and the employer has all of it. This can feel incredibly discouraging and make you lose faith and start to do things you wouldn't normally do. That's what was happening here. Read on to see what you think about it.

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    Some commenters agreed that this was unreasonable.

    maydayvoter11 "How far ahead will they be of each other?" That phrasing makes no sense. They cannot be ahead of each other.
    via maydayvoter11
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    CatalinaWine MixerDos I applied to a Project Manager position with United Rentals and they had a similar SAT style test to take.
    via CatalinaWineMixerDos
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    Zacherius I'll take "The last guy was a complete idiot and so now we're doing a basic intelligence test instead of a competent interview" for a thousand.
    via Zacherius
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    Cheezburger Image 10638409728
    via Valery Tenevoy

    A man in a crewneck looks confused at his boss

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    blastedtheburro If my past managers could've passed such a test, I think I would've gotten along a lot better with them. Putting imbecilic people in managerial positions is a surefire way to sow frustrations in a workplace.
    via blastedtheburro
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    Head-Nefariousness65 I applied for a role at Shopify and they gave a test like this. The second part was a personality test with questions like "on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, please rate: | like achieving my goals"
    via Head-Nefariousness65
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    exeterdragon I can't believe the number of commenters who are just saying "s k it up these questions are totally normal" and meanwhile haven't noticed that the first question is literally meaningless and unanswerable as written.
    via exeterdragon
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    TAR_TWOP There are just logic or maths questions. Not the best way to assess your abilities as manager, but I don't see what was the issue here.
    via TAR_TWOP
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    Schloff83 I actually really enjoy those type of tests lol, each to their own
    via Schloff83
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    Ok-Corner-2032 At this point I think it's to test our patience...and I'm already out of ite
    via Ok-Corner-2032
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    Strude187 Terrible wording aside, tests like this show the level of braincells required for the job. If the job is just stacking a shelf, then this is ridiculous, if the job requires some light critical thinking and problem solving skills, then I feel like this is appropriate.
    via Strude187
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    PlentyReal The type of person who loves and values these idiotic tests is the same type of person who loves to brag about that one time they scored super well on an IQ test.
    via PlentyReal
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    Faloma103 I understand your frustration but these type of questions have been around since the dawn of time. This is nothing new. They are relatively simple questions too. I can see an employer wanting to see if you have basic problem solving skills.
    via Faloma103
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    First question is like 4th grade math and second is just simple pattern recognition.
    via Faloma103
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    Pavlock Is that the Wonderlic test? I've only had to take it once in my career, but I'm a weirdo who likes math puzzles. Got the job, too. Kind of wish more employers used it.
    via Pavlock

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Tags

management antiwork employee manager tests job market job search weird job application
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