What is the hardest job interview question you've had to answer and how did you handle it?

1. Them: "Why *shouldn't* we hire you?" Me: "Because I care about my family more than my job, and if I have to choose between them and work, I'll choose them." I got the job.
   — AgileCzar


2. What do you like about yourself? Uh. Didnt get the job
   — MintberryCruuuunch


3. It was an interview with a power company for an engineering position right out of college. I think it was supposed to be a "high-stress" interview. The guy asked me: "Tell me about a time where a friend asked you to help him on an assignment that was supposed to be his own work. What did you do?" It's tough because you don't want to look like you ignored the professor's rules or cheated yourself. But you also want to look helpful to your fellow students. I said something like, "we all struggled with this one class, dynamics. It was hard because there were so many new concepts being introduced so quickly. All of our assignments were intended to be individual, but we worked in groups to better understand the material." I thought I nailed it, but he just sat quietly for about 10 seconds and said, "we're pretty good engineers here at our company, we don't struggle with dynamics." Next question. I didn't get the job. :/
   — Goins2754






4. It wasn’t a single question so much as it was their method of deep follow-up questions that eventually got to a point to where they basically asked me why I’m alive. Not as a “What’s your motivation in life” sort of way, but in a “Why do you exist, human?” way. I repeated to them “You’re asking me why I’m alive?” And they took a short pause to realize where their follow up questions took them and replied “Yes.” I’ve never had anyone question my existence before.
   — LFreeze


5. Interviewing for my current internship "explain to me why a condo circuit breaker is 208V instead of 240V like a house" For reference the interview was done on site walking around. There were a lot of questions like this, and as a 3rd year bichem eng student i didnt have the answers to a lot of them, but this was the toughest for me to figure out I answered by saying I don't know, but then asked him if he could explain it to me. The interview ended up taking 2.5hrs instead of one because my now boss was having fun doing it Talking to him now he said the honesty of i don't know and then following it up by asking got me the job. Apparently it was something no one should have known cause it has to do with how the fans need to operate in the basement. Some of the people reacted really poorly and got visibly upset that they were being asked "unfair questions". Others said they didnt know but I was the only one who followed up wanting to find out the answer. He wanted someone who wanted to learn and that sold him on me
   — snoboreddotcom


6. “So tell me, why did you choose to wear those shoes today?” “Umm...what?”
   — sixdollargrapes






7. About a year ago, I got called in for an interview at a business I applied for. They started interviewing me on questions that seemed kind of strange. Questions like “Can you tell us more about your event planning experience.” I was thrown off, and it became clear when the interview was about 3/4 of the way through that they were not asking me questions for the Job I applied for. They were interviewing me for an event planning position and I applied for a job in tourism and marketing. I finished the interview, shook hands and went on my way. Ended up getting the job in event planning despite having little to no experience in the field.
   — Economy_Cactus


8. “[YesterdayWasAwesome], one day your parents are going to die. After you bury them, you will never talk to them again. They’re gone forever. You will have to look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘was I a good son to my parents?’ Well, YesterdayWasAwesome, are you a good son?” This was for a post law school/pre bar exam results interview with a judge. Needless to say, I didn’t take that job.
   — YesterdayWasAwesome


9. About 7 years ago, I interviewed for a job with EMC (think big data storage company). I went thru about 8 interviews, including a panel and questions. All seemed to go well, but the big guy - technical lead, wanted a one on one since he couldn't make the panel. He then began spitting off over the top questions to me, just to get me to say I don't know. Which was very difficult as I was presenting on a whiteboard my own storage array topology. Obviously I didn't get the job.
   — Moots_point






10. "You're in Boston but not in the USA. How can this be?" I said "There's a Boston in England." Correct answer was it's before the American Revolution. I got the job.
    — spectre73


11. My boss: “So what made you apply for this position” Me: “I actually have no memory of applying for this job.” Turns out she sniped my resume when I applied for a job debating with insurance companies and decided to see what i’d say.
    — Isolatedwoods19