Job interviewers ask the darndest things

Brain teasers and off-the-wall questions have become part of the job interview process at many companies. In most cases there is no right answer: The interviewer just wants to see how the applicant thinks it through.

The website Glassdoor compiled an “oddball interview questions of 2011” list from questions that job applicants said were asked at a variety of companies.

Here’s a selection:

• Name five uses for a stapler, without the staples.

• What is 37 times 37?

• Are you exhaling warm air?

• Room, desk or car — which do you clean first?

• How would you get an elephant into a refrigerator?

• Would Mahatma Gandhi have made a good software engineer?

• What do you think of garden gnomes?

• Please spell “diverticulitis.”

• How many planes are currently flying over Kansas?

• Does life fascinate you?

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com