Bangalore: “Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?” – was one of the odd questions asked during an interview at Deloitte. The aim of an interview is always meant to squeeze the candidate’s imagination to go beyond than what they are prepared for. Every candidate prepares himself in his own field and anticipates questions from it rather than a topic like this. But recently the tech-gurus have found a new way of asking “out of the field” questions to analyze the attentive approach to tackle a situation or problem. However, the interviewers themselves are not sure of the answers of the odd questions that they ask, but would like to see how logically a candidate can think.

According to ANI, there are many such employers including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Amazon, who follow this exercise. Steve Jobs, in his authorized biography, actually asked a employee, “Are you a virgin?” Conversely Rusty Rueff, careers and workplace expert for Glassdoor says that these unexpected and astonishing questions can effectively bring out the character of a candidate. “There’s a bit of pressure to find how you think on your feet, trying to test that a little bit,” he said.

The main idea is not to get a correct answer of these questions but to analyze the logical thought process of a candidate. Rueff says, “What’s most important is that you take a big deep breath, you don’t get flustered, and you think out loud. Talk right through it.”

The 25 most oddball interview questions of 2011, conducted by the U.S. employment website Glassdoor, was topped by Tech firms.

“Just entertain me for five minutes; I’m not going to talk.” – asked at Acosta.

“If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” – asked by Hewlett Packard.

“How would you cure world hunger?” – Amazon.com.

“Please spell “diverticulitis” – EMSI Engineering.

 “How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2.30pm on a Friday?” – Google.

“If you were a Microsoft Office Program, which one would you be?” – asked at Summit Racing Equipment.

“How do you feel about those jokers at Congress?” – Consolidated Electrical.

“How would you get an elephant into a refrigerator?” – Horizon Group Properties.

According to Glassdoor, while tech firms asks such out of field questions, they also try the usual process of tried and tested questions like “Why did you apply for this job?’ and ‘What are your strengths and weaknesses?’