prove 1+2=3 and 3+5=9 asked as oops interview question

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Hi All,
in interview I faced this question,this is very strange to me,because really I don't know how this question is related to oops interview question.can anybody explain this.

Posted 21-Mar-13 18:30pm

srujana G

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Mar-13 0:44am

Not a valid question. I don't mean interviewer question (it apparently looks invalid, but we don't know all the facts), your question.
I'll try to post some answer, only because of very unusual situation. Normally, we don't consider non-questions in this forum.
("Can anybody explain..." cannot be counted as a question.) Or, if you will, your question can be considered as off-topic.
—SA

bbirajdar 22-Mar-13 0:46am

The answer is that your interviewer needs to learn basic maths and OOP concepts after that... Gift him some school textbooks

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Mar-13 1:03am

Instead of removing this really non-question immediately, I decided to write some answer, or rather advice, please see.

Your advice makes certain sense, too, but it may or may not be that simple, because we did not hear all the dialog. I witnessed so many cases of misinterpretation of words, so I cannot be sure about real fact...

—SA

lewax00 22-Mar-13 0:53am

If you can prove that 3 + 5 = 9 though, you might want to write a paper on how, because you could use that to prove 1 = 0, which basically destroys mathematics as we know it...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Mar-13 1:00am

If you can prove that first part of you statement is somehow justified by the second part starting from the word "because", you can write a paper which could shake the basics of mathematics even more. :-)
And I provided some answer, please see.
—SA

lewax00 22-Mar-13 16:52pm

It's pretty simple: if 1 = 0, then using basic arithmetic, you can prove any number equals any other number. (e.g., to prove 4 = 2, multiple both sides by 2, then add 2 to both sides). If every number is equal to every other number, then equality means nothing. Without equality, even arithmetic is useless. (What's 1 + 1? Anything I want it to be, since 1 is equal to anything else.) It basically ends up with meaning: math is completely wrong (because the rules are wrong) or math is completely meaningless (because any arbitrary statement is true).

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Mar-13 17:21pm

Got it, thank you.
—SA

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-21T18:57:00

OK, interviewers can be idiots. Well too often, it sounds like. It does not mean that we should explain every case of idiocy. As to this particular case, I'm not quite sure the question was idiotic. Perhaps they told you a bit more. Perhaps you were expected to ask for clarification; and they wanted to see if you are capable of asking question to pull information. Not a fair interviewer's behavior, but…

The rest of it is off-topic. I think, as your whole question is off-topic, I can allow myself a bit of off-topic answer. If someone removed this whole thread as off-topic, it would be fair enough though. :-)

How would I behave in this situation? I would ask a question: what do they consider as a "proof", what are the assumptions. I would try to find out the flaw in there definition, but there is a (remote) possibility that you are expected to talk about formalization of the proof and Computer Algebra Systems (CAS). Are you familiar with such things? Very few developers are, in fact. Anyway, you are supposed to take a pretty active role at the interview, at least active enough to freely discuss the questions asked, figure out all the detail you need to give an answer. Think about it: how it happens at work? When you receive some requirements for some work, you need to discuss anything which may concern you. Same goes about interview test questions or assignments.

Anyway, if you really sure that some of your interviewers is an idiot (it does not even matter if this is true or not), I would advice to relax and enjoy the situation. You would not be able to work with those people anyway, so you would have nothing to loose. Relax and use the rest of the interview for collecting some experience, ask more questions, with confidence.

—SA