A brain teaser shared by a CEO on Reddit has puzzled many, leaving some users expressing their frustration over the question.
It’s another day with a ‘brain-teaser’ that nobody necessarily asked for, yet many found themselves engaged only to be perplexed by mathematical principles and the ensuing debates in the comment section.
The person behind this challenge is Dino Dionne, CEO and president of Genesis Capital Group, an investment management company. While his question stirred up frustration online, his professional success is undeniable.
There might be a deliberate approach to his madness when he explained that he gives interviewees a ‘three-second’ test.
On LinkedIn, he stated: “I give this test to everyone I interview. If you want the #Job, you have three seconds to provide the correct answer.
“You’d be surprised to hear all the ridiculous excuses I’ve heard from people who either gave me the wrong answer, or couldn’t provide one!
“My six-year-old solved it in 30 seconds.”
Alongside his post is an image of an equation labeled ‘Only for Genius’, which reads: “3×3-3÷3+3.”
As is common with many such math problems, when it was posted on the Reddit community ‘LinkedInLunatics’, users arrived at different answers.
Personally, I calculated five when attempting to ‘solve’ it, working from left to right, though others suggested it was 11, and my supervisor believed it was one.
However, most people didn’t focus on solving the problem; instead, they expressed annoyance at the CEO for challenging their intelligence.
One user commented: “The correct answer is to end the interview and find a boss that isn’t a tool.”
Another person remarked: “This moron is the exact reason why Brackets/Parentheses were introduced in Maths.”
Meanwhile, a third person criticized: “Adds the ‘my 6 year old can solve it in 30 seconds’ as a kicker… but gives said child 10-times longer to solve the equation.”
Sadly, there was no universally accepted answer, but it’s likely 11, as one user demonstrated their calculation.
On Reddit, someone explained: “He and other people keep saying the answer is 1, but I get 11 when following PEMDAS [Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction] (multiplication and division first as a single step, so it’s 3×3=9 and 3÷3=1, then addition and subtraction next as a single step, so it’s 9-1+3 = 11), and 5 when I go straight across (3×3=9, 9-3=6, 6÷3=2, and 2+3=5).”
What’s your answer?