Google's top boss is stumped by one of his own firm's interview questions

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StressedImage source, Thinkstock

We've all been stumped by a tricky job interview, but you'd expect Google's top boss to be able to answer his own questions.

Eric Schmidt was quizzed at a conference in November and struggled to solve a brainteaser about pirates.

His firm regularly used the question in interviews up until a few years ago.

But according to Quartz, the boss had to stall for more time asking for the question to be repeated before attempting the maths.

Kendrick Lamar, Quentin Tarantino, will.i.am and Erin Brockowich were at the same Summit at Sea conference which brings together some of the brightest people in business and culture.

So if they're struggling, what chance do we have?

"You're the captain of a pirate ship...

...and you find a chest of gold. Your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty but still survive."

Image source, Getty Images

Eric Schmidt finally came up with his solution of giving 49% of the pirates stock in internet companies, and 51% get the gold.

He said "it seems to me that if more than half are happy, I survive. I propose, that we give 49% of the pirates stock in internet companies, and 51% get the gold".

Think you've got a better answer?

BBC Newsnight have made this handy little video to explain the mathematically "best" way of answering this.

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Google says it has since scrapped this style of questioning at job interviews, but it would seem that they're not the only company baffling you when you're applying for jobs.

And based on the responses, it would seem that your hair style has a lot to do with your answer.

We wonder if either of them would have got the job.

'What would the name of your debut album be?'

That was a question asked at a job interview at Urban Outfitters, according to users of Glassdoor.

They also said Whole Foods have asked: "would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?".

Let's just hope it never comes to that.

We were going to make a quiz for all these questions - but let's be honest, there's probably no "correct" answer.

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