Am I clever enough to work at Google? Questions 6 to 10

6 If you look at a clock and the time is 3.15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer is not zero!)

No matter what the question says, my brain can't help but instinctively think the answer is zero. But having realised that the hour hand would've moved a quarter of the way between 3 and 4, and that there are 12 hourly segments for it to move through, the solution must be 360 divided by 12 divided by 4. Which equals 7.5 degrees.

7 How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?

OK. So I suppose Google wouldn't be looking for a specific answer here, but evidence of how you'd intelligently try to tackle the question.

My first thought would be to suggest using Google to answer the question, but I suspect the interviewers wouldn't be impressed by that.

The key must lie in how many pianos there are in the world, and estimating a ratio between that figure and how many tuners are needed to care for them.

Or maybe I should just guess. 11,903. Is that close?

8 Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for 17 minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it's only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in one minute, another in two, the third in five, and the slow poke takes 10 to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?

At first glance, this seems to be similar to that famous conundrum about the farmer who has to cross a river with a fox, a chicken and chicken feed (so brilliantly explored in an episode of The Office).

After a few trial-and-error attempts, and a little cajoling from Web User News Editor Ben Camm-Jones (who worked out the answer yesterday), I hit upon the solution.

First to cross are the people who take one and two minutes.

Then the person who takes one minute returns, and hands the flashlight to the two people who take five and 10 minutes.

They cross, hand the flashlight to the person who takes two minutes, who crosses back, picks up the person who crosses in one minute, return across to safety.

Phew. Got all that?

9 How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

This sounds more like a Christmas cracker joke which has a corny punned response. After question 8 my brain is feeling a bit knackered, and I'm beginning to wonder what the job interview questions are like at Yahoo instead.

10 You're the captain of a pirate ship, and 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?

Is this a leadership or a logical question? Is Google trying to test how fair we'd be to our underlings, or how ruthlessly profit-seeking we would be?

If it's the latter, then you could just let 51 per cent of your fellow pirates share the booty, and screw the rest.

If it's the former, then the utilitarian response would be to siphon off about 10 per cent for yourself, and share the remaining treasure equally among the rest.

So, Mr Page and Mr Brin, how did I do? Shall we start to discuss terms?