Weird interview question at EB.. Why do they ask this?

I had a question during an interview about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and what is the likelihood someone would win.

There's a 33.34% chance of being right unless the person happen to know the answer, and lifelines can only get you so far into the game.

Let's say there are 15 questions with 4 choices each. Let's also say there are 3 lifelines: call-a-friend, 50-50, and ask-the-audience.

For each of the 15 questions, there is only 1 correct answer, and 3 incorrect answers, so immediately your chances are 1/3 = 33.34%. You can use each lifeline once. Using phone-a-friend, let's say gives you a 95% chance the person you call is correct. So 1 question is 95%. Similarly, we can say ask-the-audience gives you a 95% chance. Finally, 50-50 will remove 2 wrong answers, so you have 1 right answer and 1 wrong answer, so you basically know the answer. To recap:

  • Question 1: 33.34%

  • Question 2: 33.34%

  • Question 3: 33.34%

  • Question 4: 95% <--- ask-the-audience

  • Question 5: 33.34%

  • Question 6: 33.34%

  • Question 7: 33.34%

  • Question 8: 33.34%

  • Question 9: 95% <--- phone-a-friend

  • Question 10: 33.34%

  • Question 11: 33.34%

  • Question 12: 33.34%

  • Question 13: 33.34%

  • Question 14: 33.34%

  • Question 15: 100% <--- 50-50

  • Total: 690.08%

Divided by 15 questions = 46.00%

So basically, it's more a less a game of chance, but more than half the people on the show will lose, so it's not very fair. That show is making tons of money off of people.

The interviewer was completely baffled but I think it may be because he is hostile to independent thought. I guess he was expecting someone to just accept the premise of the show and accept it but I gave him a detailed explanation of how it is just a game of luck.

I've not heard back yet but why do they ask these kind of questions? What's the point? 

50 Comments
 

Bro you do know that a person playing the game has to actually get Question "n" right before he can go on to question "n+1", right? You have to multiply the probabilities of each individual answer, not add. You basically told the interviewer what is the simple average chance to get a random question right, not to win the game

I hope this was a troll ahah

 

Yeah wtf....

What is the probability of you getting this question correct if you randomly selected an answer? Is it....

a.) 1/1, 100%

b.) 1/2, 50%

c.) 1/3, 33.3%

d.) 1/4, 25%

i'm no fucking genius but I'd put money the probability of getting the right answer given 4 options is 1/4, 25%. OP should phone a friend.

"Out the garage is how you end up in charge It's how you end up in penthouses, end up in cars, it's how you Start off a curb servin', end up a boss"
 

For each of the 15 questions, there is only 1 correct answer, and 3 incorrect answers, so immediately your chances are 1/3 = 33.34%. 

Ouch. So much for letting art history majors into banking

 

This seems like a VP I can send a corrupted file to and have him respond, "looks great, just forwarded to client." 

 

same

"Out the garage is how you end up in charge It's how you end up in penthouses, end up in cars, it's how you Start off a curb servin', end up a boss"
 

ignoring the obvious troll element, this is a stupid type of question. a contestants chance of winning isn't 1/4^question #'s. 

that's their chance of guessing to victory with eyes blind folded and not listening the question.

if you ask me:

qs1: what is 2+2 and give me 4 options then qs2: what is 5-1 and give me 4 options, my chances of getting both correct are 100%. 

 

Is this the answer?

With some logic?

If the first 5 questions are easy (70%).

The other 5 are tricky (50%) (use one help).

And the last 5 hard (25%) (use two).

1) 16,8% To get through 5.

2) 0.01% To get through 10 with 2 remaining helplines.

3) 0.00014% To become a millionaire.

Also if you are clever (enchanted 20% per question) the odds are 0.011%

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~Winston Churchill~
 

If only probabilities worked this way😭 more kids would’ve scored higher on their SATs. But then again, what do I know about about independent events P(x and y) = P(x)*P(y) or mutually exclusive probabilities P(x or y) = P(x)+P(y). By the way, the probability of winning is wayyyyy lower than what you calculated. This is not a game of chance but a game of skill, at which point fair probabilities might not necessarily apply.

 

Assuming the VP is not a joke post

Random (assume questions are in Sanskrit)

25% for 5 questions = 0.098% for getting them all right.  Drops significantly for the next 10.

Now as per the game adjustments.

First 5 are idiot knowlege.  1 in 2 chance.

Next five are harder but still basic 1 in 3 chance.

Last 5 are very tough.  Requires an answer. 1 in 4.

Assuming your friend and the audience is 100% correct and 50/50 are all used in the last section...

First section:  3.125%.

(.5×.5×.5×.5×.5)

Second section: 0.4%

(.33×.33×.33×.33×.33)

Third section: 3.125%

(1×1×.5×.25×.25)

= 0.0004%

This is "picking" out of a bag of choices

In reality, an intelligent person will have the following expected payout.

First 5:  100%

Second 5: (1×1×.66x.5x.5) 16.5%

Third 5: see above 3.125%

Total = 0.5%, which says that 1 out of every 200 people win the million or about 1 per season on average

Namaste. D.O.U.G.
 

D.O.U.G.

Assuming the VP is not a joke post

Random (assume questions are in Sanskrit)

25% for 5 questions = 0.098% for getting them all right.  Drops significantly for the next 10.

Now as per the game adjustments.

First 5 are idiot knowlege.  1 in 2 chance.

Next five are harder but still basic 1 in 3 chance.

Last 5 are very tough.  Requires an answer. 1 in 4.

Assuming your friend and the audience is 100% correct and 50/50 are all used in the last section...

First section:  3.125%.

(.5×.5×.5×.5×.5)

Second section: 0.4%

(.33×.33×.33×.33×.33)

Third section: 3.125%

(1×1×.5×.25×.25)

= 0.0004%

This is "picking" out of a bag of choices

In reality, an intelligent person will have the following expected payout.

First 5:  100%

Second 5: (1×1×.66x.5x.5) 16.5%

Third 5: see above 3.125%

Total = 0.5%, which says that 1 out of every 200 people win the million or about 1 per season on average

Built a quick Excel model using your assumptions and got the following:

Expected Payout for Regular Person = $306.71

Expected Payout for Smart Person = $91218.75

Array
 

I think the main argument to be made of why liberal arts / social sciences teach valuable skills is fully on display in your post: teaches introverted, socially inept students the ability to recognize contextual sarcasm and tacit conversational subtext

 

FackCalMcNair

I think the main argument to be made of why liberal arts / social sciences teach valuable skills is fully on display in your post: teaches introverted, socially inept students the ability to recognize contextual sarcasm and tacit conversational subtext

Social skills don't mean much unless you're at least mildly competent. 

Also how do degrees like gender studies and philosophy teach people social skills?

Array
 

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