The Puzzling 'Blender' Question That Stumped Google Interviewees

Job interviews can already be nerve-wracking, but imagine facing a question so unusual it leaves candidates bewildered. At Google, one of the strangest brain teasers ever asked went viral:

“You’re shrunken down to the size of a nickel and dropped into a blender. What do you do?”

This scenario sounds like something straight from a science fiction plot. Popularized by the 2013 film The Internship, the question has in reality caused confusion and bright minds to freeze up during interviews.

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The Reasoning Behind the Challenge

For many years, Google incorporated riddles like this to evaluate how candidates think creatively and under pressure. With numerous applicants for every role, the puzzle aimed to identify those with swift and inventive problem-solving skills.

The simplest response appears to be: leap out. Since your entire body shrinks, including your mass, your muscle-to-weight ratio remains the same. This suggests you could jump as effectively as a regular-sized person and clear the blender's edge.

Why That Approach Fails Scientifically

Science tells a different story, though. Professor Gregory Sutton pointed out that while both your mass and size shrink, your limbs also become proportionally smaller. This reduction means you have significantly less time to generate the force required for a high jump.

A fitting analogy is the flea: though it can jump many times its body length, a human shrunk to flea size wouldn’t possess the same jumping capacity. Sutton’s research estimates that a human the size of a coin could only jump about 10 to 15 centimeters, far too little to escape the blender.

Actual Strategies for Escape

If jumping won’t get you out, what would? Experts recommend employing outside forces to launch yourself out of the blender.

Elastic bands – Sutton suggests a small rubber band could act like a miniature catapult, propelling you upwards when released.
Compressed springs – According to motion specialist Jim Usherwood, a wound-up spring could store the needed energy to be unleashed suddenly, flinging you to safety.

So if you ever find yourself miniaturized inside a blender, your best hope is that some form of elastic device is within reach. Otherwise, escape won’t be possible.

Why Google Ditched Brainteasers

Feeling relieved that you won’t have to tackle this question in a future interview? You’re not alone—Google has stopped using brainteaser questions altogether.

Gayle McDowell, a former Google software engineer, disclosed that recently, the company’s hiring managers abandoned these puzzles after realizing they don’t reliably forecast job success.

In fact, if a brainteaser is still thrown into the mix, many hiring teams now disregard the resulting answers. The quirky blender question, while entertaining, isn’t an effective measure of a candidate’s skill or potential.

Could you have devised a plan to escape under pressure?