Google is known for being one of the most challenging and exciting places to work, so it’s not surprising to learn that getting a job there is not an easy task. Interviews at Google tests your algorithmic thinking and design skills and it has become something of a legend in job-hunting circles.

Here are some of the trickiest questions ever asked in Google interviews:

1. 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?

2. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?

3. Why are manhole covers round?

4. A disc is spinning on a spindle, and you don’t know which way. You are given a set of pins. Describe how you would use them to determine which way the disc is spinning.

5. How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?

6. How many degrees are there in the angle between the hour and minute hands of a clock when the time is a quarter past three?

7. You want to design a phone for deaf people — how do you do it?

8. How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?

9. How do you compute the collision of two moving spheres? Give me both the mathematical equations for the solution as well as an algorithmic implementation.

10. If you were given a box of pencils, list 10 things you could do with them that are not their traditional use.