An investment management executive has stirred considerable debate with his unconventional hiring practice: a mathematical brain teaser that candidates must solve within just three seconds.
The already high-pressure environment of job interviews has taken on an additional challenge at Genesis Capital Group, where CEO and President Dino Dionne implements this controversial screening technique.
“Beyond resume qualifications and standard interview questions, I require all potential hires to pass this quick assessment,” Dionne explained in a LinkedIn post that subsequently went viral. “Candidates receive just three seconds to provide the correct solution.”
The equation in question, labeled “Only for Genius,” reads: “3×3-3÷3+3.” According to Dionne, most applicants struggle with this time-pressured test, though he provocatively claimed his elementary school-aged child resolved it in half a minute.
“The excuses I’ve heard from candidates who fail to answer correctly or at all would astonish you,” Dionne wrote, further fueling the controversy surrounding his approach.
When the post circulated on Reddit’s “LinkedInLunatics” forum, it ignited immediate backlash. Most commenters directed their criticism not at the equation itself but at what they perceived as an arbitrary and potentially counterproductive hiring practice.
“Walking away from this interview would demonstrate better judgment than participating in such a pointless exercise,” one Reddit user suggested.
Another commenter highlighted the mathematical confusion created by the absence of parentheses in the equation: “This perfectly illustrates why brackets were invented in mathematics.”
A particularly astute observation called out the inconsistency in Dionne’s standards: “He boasts about his child solving it in 30 seconds while giving job candidates just one-tenth of that time.”
The mathematical problem itself created confusion, with various individuals arriving at different answers depending on how they applied order of operations rules.
One detailed analysis on Reddit explained: “Following PEMDAS correctly—where multiplication and division are performed together from left to right, followed by addition and subtraction—I calculate 11 as the answer. First, 3×3=9 and 3÷3=1, then 9-1+3=11. However, proceeding strictly left to right without proper order of operations yields 5.”
The controversy underscores ongoing debates about effective hiring practices, particularly regarding whether rapid-fire cognitive tests genuinely predict job performance or simply add unnecessary stress to an already demanding process.
Do you think mathematical puzzles under extreme time pressure reveal meaningful information about a candidate’s potential value to an organization? Or does this approach risk eliminating qualified professionals who simply process information differently?