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Answering Problem-Solving Interview Questions: Tips and Examples

Problem-solving skills are difficult to describe and quantify: they’re a combination of different hard and soft skills such as logical inference, technical knowledge, adaptability and innovation, leadership potential, decision-making, productivity, and collaboration.

All are crucial for developing expertise and delivering results at work — especially when the going gets tough.

And because problem-solving is so important, you’re almost guaranteed to get asked about it in a job interview. Read on, and make sure no problem-solving question catches you off guard.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• How to answer problem-solving job interview questions
• Types of problem-solving questions
• Why recruiters ask these questions and what your answers might reveal
• Sample answers for the main types of problem-solving questions

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How to Answer Problem-Solving Job Interview Questions

Here’s how to understand the intention behind problem-solving interview questions and create an informative answer that will highlight your expertise and potential.

Understand the problem-solving question and why recruiters ask it

Reflect on your thought process, be specific, follow up with clear outcomes, use the star method.

Hiring managers and recruiters want to know how you identify roadblocks, analyze information, and overcome challenges. These challenges can vary from specific, technical issues to more general issues like improving company processes or handling interpersonal relationships.

To put these skills to the test, recruiters use “problem-solving” job interview questions, also known as analytical questions. Here are some common ones:

• Tell me about a situation where you had to solve a difficult problem.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.
• Describe a time when you didn’t know how to solve a problem. What did you do?
• Describe how you approach a complex or difficult problem.

Here’s what these questions help recruiters discover:

Your adaptability and innovation

Are you an out-of-the-box thinker who’s open to new ideas and who can handle uncharted waters easily?

Efficiency and productivity

Are your problem-solving skills contributing to the team’s performance, removing bottlenecks, smoothing out processes, and keeping projects on track?

Collaboration and communication

Are you successfully collaborating with others to find solutions? Are you handling people-related problems effectively?

Decision-making

Can you efficiently evaluate different options and reach a decision independently? Can you make sound decisions to minimize risks and maximize benefits and opportunities?

Leadership potential

Are your problem-solving skills so good that they open up new opportunities for you to move in the leadership direction ?

Problem-solving interview questions are not tied to a specific role and industry. Mastering your problem-solving skills will help you stand out from the competition and be more successful in your role, whatever it may be.

And if you need help with answering other common interview questions, sign up for our free course !

Be mindful of your thought processes when you face a difficult problem.

Is your initial reaction to panic or are you calm and enthusiastic to tackle it? Is the problem stopping you from focusing on everything else you’re working on? Do you look at the problem as a whole or do you break it down?

Understanding how you think and approach the problem will help you know yourself and improve your problem-solving skills, but it’ll also make it easier to answer these tricky questions during an interview.

Tailor your answers to problem-solving interview questions so that you cover specific details, actions, and skills relevant to the position. If possible, list the results and share lessons learned from an experience you’re describing.

We’re not saying you should lie and make up a story about your problem-solving skills for each position you apply for; remember that this is a broad set of skills and you surely have something relevant from your past experience that you can bring up.

💡 For example, if you’re a Customer Service Representative applying for the same role in another company, you can speak about how you solved a customer’s problem or how you helped the team switch to a new CRM tool and transfer all the data.

💡 If you’re applying for a leadership role in the customer service field, you can speak about how you handled an interpersonal problem within a team or how you spotted bottlenecks and modified processes to make the team more efficient.

💡 If you’re moving to a Sales position, you can highlight your selling experience and talk about a time when you had to solve a customer’s problem and you managed to upsell them in the process.

Prove you have outstanding problem-solving skills by listing clear outcomes for every problem you solved. They can be quantitative or qualitative.

💡 Fixed a process? Say that it improved team productivity by X%.

💡 Handled a difficult client? If they became a VIP customer later on, mention it.

💡 Resolved a conflict? Describe how the experience helped you strengthen the bonds in a team.

💡 Solved a complex technical problem? Say that you got a bonus for it, or that you expanded and improved the existing documentation to help coworkers in the future.

Whenever possible, use the STAR (situation-task-action-result) method in your answer:

• (S) ituation: Describe the situation and provide context.
• (T) ask: What tasks you planned on doing to tackle the issue, your contribution.
• (A) ction you took (step-by-step).
• (R) esult of your efforts.

It’ll help you create a well-rounded answer that’s informative and engaging. Plus, using this method to prepare answers in advance will help you memorize the story quickly and easily.

✅ Bear in mind that not every problem-solving interview question can be answered with a STAR method. Some questions will be very specific and will ask for quick and short information about a certain tool or similar. Other questions, the ones beginning with “Give me an example when…” or “Tell me about a time when…” will be the perfect opportunity to use the STAR method.

Also, remember that there’s never a single correct answer to a problem-solving question, just like there usually are multiple solutions to a given problem — a study on the hospitality industry revealed that the most successful problem-solving strategies applied in the workplace were always very specific to given circumstances.

Questions about your problem-solving skills are just one group of the standard interview questions, you can be almost sure you will get asked. Prepare for other interview “classics” with our dedicated guides:

• Tell Me About Yourself: Sample Answers
• Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?
• Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?
• What Are Your Strenghts?
• What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
• How Do You Handle Conflict?
• Why Should We Hire You?
• Why Do You Want to Work Here?

If prepping for a video interview, learn what to expect from this guide: Video Interviewing Tips & Tricks

And if you’re interested in interviewing for specific positions, see:

• Sales Interview Questions and Answers
• Customer Service Interview Questions and Answers
• Customer Service Manager Interview Questions and Answers
• Behavioral Interview Questions for Customer Service

Types of Problem-Solving Job Interview Questions

How do you approach complex problems.

• Can you provide an example of a challenging issue you’ve encountered and how you resolved it?

How do you prioritize multiple tasks when faced with tight deadlines?

• Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult problem at work. How did you solve it?
• Tell me about a time when your team faced a problem and you helped to find a solution.

Describe a situation in which you received criticism for your solution to a problem. How did you handle that?

Can you provide an example of when you had to collaborate with a team to solve a work-related problem.

• Can you describe a situation where you had to use your problem-solving skills to make a decision?

How would you respond if a high-priority project was suddenly delayed, jeopardizing the deadline?

Imagine a scenario where your manager was unavailable, but a client had an urgent issue – what would you do, if you encountered a high-stress situation that required you to stay calm and focused, how would you handle it.

• Imagine you’re faced with a tight deadline, but you’ve encountered a significant roadblock. How would you handle this situation?
• How would you assess and resolve a performance issue in a web application?
• Describe your approach to troubleshooting a networking issue that spans multiple devices.
• How would you approach debugging a piece of software with limited documentation?
• How would you deal with an angry VIP customer if your boss was away?
• What would you do if you noticed a decline in the ROI of your team?
• How would you troubleshoot an error in a software product that has been released to customers?

1. General problem-solving questions

These questions aim to discover your general approach to problems and challenges.

Interviewers want to know how you approach the process of solving complex problems. Do you jump straight into it or do you take a step back, break the problem down into manageable components, analyze the info you have, and then dive in?

Can you provide an example of a challenging issue you’ve encountered and how you resolved it?

Can you assess a situation and find the most appropriate solution? Can you handle the pressure? Do you take the lead during difficult times? Are you able to take responsibility for the outcomes?

This question is more specific than the previous one, so make sure you think about a situation in advance and prepare your answer using the STAR method.

Big Interview’s Answer Builder can help you shape your answer. You’ll be able to list and filter the points you’d like to mention, add details and rearrange the order to create a compelling story.

Plus, you’ll get bite-sized tips on how to answer the most common interview questions while you’re in the Builder.

Recruiters want to know how you set criteria based on which you’ll set priorities, how and if you juggle between multiple tasks, and how you communicate and collaborate with other people involved.

General problem-solving sample answer

“Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult problem at work. How did you solve it?”

Behavioral questions about problem-solving

Behavioral questions ask for specific situations from your past in which you displayed a certain behavior. Based on it, recruiters hope to predict how you’ll perform in the future.

Tell me about a time when your team faced a problem and you helped to find a solution

This one’s asked to assess your teamwork and cooperation skills in tough situations.

Interestingly, a 2015 study on problem-solving in the workplace showed that when it comes to expertise-related problems, employees rarely relied on trial-and-error or information retrieval as modes of problem-solving.

Instead, they mostly relied on help from others, that is, their coworkers who they believed were experts on the subject matter.

This puts emphasis on the importance of teamwork and collaboration in problem-solving. And you certainly noticed how easier it gets to solve a problem (or brainstorm a new idea) as a group, when different individuals bring fresh, unique ideas to the table.

So, recruiters want to know if you’d be cooperative and open to a teamwork experience, and these factors might hint at how you’ll fit in with the team.

This one checks how you handle feedback and criticism — it’s challenging, but it’s essential for growth.

In your answer, make sure you depict a situation in which you demonstrated that growth mindset and the ability to see that taking criticism is not a sign of weakness (or a personal attack on you) but a unique opportunity to learn something new.

Similarly to the first question in this group, this one aims to see how you perform in a team and solve problems collectively.

According to a study , in a team, task completion can be independent , when each team member completes their own activities, sequential , when activities go from one team member to another, reciprocal , when activities are done back-and-forth between team members, or intensive , when all team members work on activities and problem-solving simultaneously.

Recruiters want to get to know more about your ideal teamwork process model and how you connect with others to solve problems.

Your answer will tell them if you’re a good team problem-solver, team player, and if you’re able to give and share credit, as well as take responsibility if something goes wrong.

Behavioral problem-solving sample answer

“Can you describe a situation where you had to use your problem-solving skills to make a decision?”

Situational problem-solving questions

Situational problem-solving questions put you in a hypothetical situation, present a problem, and ask for your opinion/solution.

Even if you haven’t encountered a similar situation in the past, it will help you to draw parallels from your experience to create answers to these questions.

Your answer to this question will tell recruiters about your flexibility, time and task organization, prioritization, as well as how you handle pressure.

An ideal employee will be able to think quickly and adapt to unforeseen circumstances, all the while remaining calm and composed. You’ll want to aim at displaying these qualities in your answer.

Taking the lead and taking calculated risks shows that a person has outstanding problem-solving skills and is not afraid to take initiative, which shows leadership potential.

Your answer to this question needs to demonstrate your ability to quickly analyze information, weigh pros and cons of a situation, and make decisions on the spot. This is especially important if you’re applying for leadership positions, like a team leader or a project manager.

Recruiters and hiring managers want to assess your ability to handle stress, make rational decisions, and maintain a focused approach in tricky, high-pressure situations.

Make sure to provide them with relevant examples from your past that will paint a picture of your skills and abilities. This is especially relevant for high-pressure positions such as police officers, lawyers, financial analysts, and similar.

Situational problem-solving sample answer

“Imagine you’re faced with a tight deadline, but you’ve encountered a significant roadblock. How would you handle this situation?”

Technical questions about problem-solving

Technical problem-solving questions are based on the technical knowledge that underlies each role. They aim to check your expertise or the means by which you connect the dots or obtain information if you don’t possess it.

Will you sort through the documentation to find a solution? Or is your first reaction to recall a past experience? Perhaps you prefer connecting with an expert or a coworker with more experience than you. Or you’re the type of person to synthesize your existing knowledge and try to find a solution through trial and error. Maybe you’ll turn to a book or a course? Whatever it is, recruiters would like to know.

There are many ways to solve these problems and your preferred strategies will give recruiters insight into how you think and act.

Examples of technical questions about problem-solving are:

💡 Bear in mind that, with the rapid development of AI, the majority of technical tasks might be overtaken by robots in the future. That’s why it’s important that you work on your non-technical skills, too. Employers are already admitting that problem-solving skills are the second most important skill they’re looking for. For this reason, researchers are working hard to find and develop frameworks for helping people improve their problem-solving capabilities — you can read more about it in this paper on problem-solving skills among graduate engineers .

Technical problem-solving sample answer

“How would you troubleshoot an error in a software product that has been released to customers?”

✅ Pro tip: Practicing in advance is the only way to make sure your answer is flawless! The Mock Interview Tool will help you record your answer and get instant feedback on its quality and delivery. From power words and your pace of speech to “ummm” counter and eye contact, you’ll get help on how to improve in no time!

Our tool helped AJ land his first job in tech and get 7 job offers in the process . “I think Big Interview was super helpful in that aspect of having canned answers for every possible scenario and being in the moment of answering those questions.”, said AJ.

Problem-Solving Interview Questions: Popular Opinions vs. Expert Advice

Now that we covered different types of problem-solving questions and how to answer them, we decided to dive into popular forums and see what job-seekers have to say on this topic. We picked pieces of advice that resonated with the community and confronted them with expert-backed best practices. Let’s see where we stand.

IndianaJones Jr on Reddit said : “If I was an interviewer asking this question, I would expect a personalized answer relevant to yourself, not to specific projects. At least that’s my interpretation.

“What are your experiences in problem-solving?” 

Sample answer: Generally, when I’m working on a project I find it’s easier to start at the end and work backwards. I use that to get a broad strokes idea of where my work needs to take me on any particular project and then I head in that direction. I find that when I get to specific problems I can get too stuck on using tried and true methods so I try to encourage myself to use out-of-the-box solutions. For example [your example here]…”

Career expert comments:

The “bones” of this sample answer are solid. It puts emphasis on breaking down the candidate’s thought process and displays patterns through which the candidate solves problems and learns along the way. However, the most important part of the answer — the actual example of a candidate’s problem-solving skills put to practice — remains a placeholder. Remember, the more specific you get in your answer, the better the impression you make on the interviewer. So here, I recommend paying equal attention to a specific situation in which you solved a problem and using the STAR method to tell that story.

Ambitious_Tell_4852 , when discussing the question “Give an example of a challenge you faced and how you overcame it,” said: 

“Clearly, that is the standard trick question designed for a prospective new hire to tell a prospective employer about his/her professional weaknesses. Oldest “negative Nelli’’ question imaginable during the interview process. Always keep your answer thorough and positive albeit sickeningly sugar-coated! 😁”

This is, straight-out, a bad piece of advice. If an interviewer wants to hear about your weaknesses, they will ask “What is your greatest weakness?” 

A question about overcoming a challenge isn’t a trick question at all. I’d argue it’s actually an opportunity to share some of your proudest wins. But when it comes to answering this question, it’s true that your answers do need to be thorough and positive. This doesn’t mean you need to sugar-coat anything, though. Interviewers don’t want to hear you downplaying your challenges. On the contrary, they want to hear you speak about them honestly and explain what you learned from them. And being able to do so puts a healthy, positive spin on the situation. To put it shortly: provide a real example from your past, answer this question honestly, and emphasize the results and lessons learned. 

Here’s an opinion from a hiring manager, Hugh on Quora, about how to answer a question about a time you needed to solve a problem:

“It really doesn’t matter what the problem you describe is or how you solved it. What I am looking/listening for is 1) the size of the problem (the bigger, the better, a broken shoelace before going out on a date is not an impressive problem) and 2) a step-by-step process to a satisfactory solution (if suddenly all variables fell into place does not show me that you solved the problem — you were just there when it solved itself).

I am also looking/listening for an example of how you solve a problem after you are hired. I may have to explain it to my superiors, and I would like to know that I have a complete and accurate story to tell.”

Career expert comments:  

A good piece of advice from someone who has first-hand hiring experience. When talking about problem-solving, a detailed description of your process is key. The only thing I wouldn’t agree with is having to choose a “big” problem. If you do have experience solving a big problem, that’s great. But sometimes you won’t have a major problem to talk about, and it largely depends on your level of experience and your position. So pick a relevant difficulty, even if it’s not that big, in which you displayed skills relevant to the role you’re applying for.

• Problem-solving skills encompass your logical inference, technical knowledge, adaptability and innovation, leadership potential, decision-making, productivity, and collaboration.
• Because these skills are important in the workplace, there’s a variety of problem-solving interview questions recruiters will ask to assess you.
• Some of them include behavioral, situational, or technical problem-solving questions.
• In order to answer these questions, you need to be aware of your thought processes when faced with a problem.
• In your answer, be as specific as you can and use the STAR format whenever possible.
• Make sure to highlight outcomes, results, or lessons learned.
• As always, the best strategy is to anticipate these questions and prepare rough answers in advance. Including practicing your answer so you’re confident for your interview.

____________________

Need help with your job search? There are 3 ways we can help you:

• Tired of interviewing and not landing the job? Discover actionable lessons and interview practice here (Rated with 4.9/5 by 1,000,000 users).
• Learn how to talk about your proudest accomplishments without bragging or underselling yourself.
• Learn how to answer tricky questions about conflict resolution in the workplace.

How can I improve my problem-solving skills?

Stay in the loop with new technologies and trends. Accept challenges and problems as a way to grow, don’t panic over them. Acquire a systematic approach to analyzing problems, break them down into smaller components which will help you discover root causes and devise a solution plan. Practice logical thinking, evaluating evidence, and staying objective. And give yourself time. Perhaps not surprisingly, studies suggest that the more business experience you have, the better you become at problem-solving.

Are there specific resources available to practice problem-solving interview questions?

There’s a variety of resources available to you, such as courses and Youtube tutorials, Facebook/LinkedIn groups, forums such as Reddit and Quora, books, or online platforms like Big Interview. If you’re trying to develop technical problem-solving skills, you might benefit from relevant platforms’ knowledge bases or YT channels; but if you’re looking specifically for how to answer interview questions, platforms like Big Interview are the way to go.

How should I handle a question about a problem-solving scenario I have not encountered before?

Don’t be afraid to ask additional questions for clarification. If you’ve never dealt with this problem before, be honest about it but answer how you would solve the problem if you were faced with it today. Break the problem down into manageable steps, try to recall a similar situation from your own experience that could help you draw parallels, and propose several different solutions.

Can I talk about my problem-solving experiences derived from non-professional settings such as student projects?

Yes, especially if you’re a recent graduate or a candidate with limited experience. You can use experiences and examples from student projects, extracurricular activities, and you can even use examples from your personal life, as long as you present them in a professional manner and connect them to the position you’re applying for. Remember to highlight the results, as well as the skills that helped you solve the problem and that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Are there any common mistakes to avoid when answering problem-solving questions during an interview?

The most common mistake is not preparing in advance which causes rambling. You need to make sure that your answer is informative and well-structured, and that you’re not only presenting a solution but also laying down the steps to display your logical reasoning. Make sure not to forget to give credit to teammates if they contributed to solving the problem you chose to talk about. Finally, for a coherent and informative presentation, make sure you use the STAR method.

What can I do if I don’t know the answer to a technical problem-solving question in an interview?

Handle it professionally. You can always try to reach a conclusion by breaking down the problem and thinking out loud to show your thinking mechanism. Draw parallels between the problem at hand and another similar problem you encountered before. Lay down possible solutions, even if you’re not sure they’ll work, and be transparent — feel free to tell the recruiter you’re not sure how to answer it, but make sure you emphasize that you’re open to learning.

Can I ask for help or guidance from the interviewer during a problem-solving question?

Avoid asking for help directly, but ask for clarification in case something is unclear or if you need additional information. Sometimes, the interviewer will take the initiative and provide you with hints to encourage you and see how you think.

How can I demonstrate creativity and resourcefulness when answering problem-solving questions?

It’s all about storytelling! Preparing in advance will provide some space for displaying your creativity. You can do it by making fun analogies or drawing parallels from well-known situations; or making pop-culture references.

Maja Stojanovic

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How can I improve my problem-solving ability?

Everyone says the same thing: "a real programmer knows how to handle real problems." But they forget how they learned this ability or where: it's not taught in schools.

What can I do to improve my ability to tackle complex programming problems? What strategies have worked for you? Are there specific areas I should be focusing on, like algorithms or design patterns?

• self-improvement
• problem-solving
• 3 Two useful books mentioned in Code Complete are: Conceptual Blockbusting by James Adams, and Lateral Thinking by Edward De Bono. –  mctylr Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 17:09
• 1 AH! I forgot to post in here back when it just had a few answers. –  Mark C Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 5:33

26 Answers 26

A few techiques that might or might not work:

• Look at existing solutions to common problems, e.g. design patterns. Maybe you find something similar that at least partially resembles your problem. Search the web.
• Act as if the problem has already been solved, and trace what follows back to the solution to make. For example, instead of designing the API for a class, just write the code that makes use of the class, with method calls as you would like them, and then implement that API.
• Do something else, e.g. surf the net or play solitaire, and wait for inspiration to happen.
• Think of the person you like most, and pretend you want to impress her with your problem solving skills. What would be an extremely impressive solution?
• Check the problem for inherent contradictions or conflicting requirements, and state exactly what they are and what compromise could be made. Often, when such conflicts exist, but you are not aware of, you tend to discard one possible solution after another because you cannot perfectly satisfy all requirements.
• If you already have a possible solution, but it feels "dirty" (copy-paste, global variables, spaghetti code etc.), use it anyway and make it better afterwards
• The last point is excellent. Sometimes to solution to the problem is to just get it working for most cases and then see where it needs to be improved. –  JeffO Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 13:20
• 4 However, be aware that the number of "I'll fix it later"s which turn in to "I've fixed it"s is (at least in my experience) fractionally small. –  Gareth Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 16:09
• 3 Gareth: True, but the idea is not to make it better next week, next month or whenever, but immediately after getting it to work. It's meant as a method to crack hard nuts. –  user281377 Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 18:27
• 3 I don't surfing the net as a way of waiting for inspiration to happen. You need idle brain cycles to get inspiration to happen, and surfing the net is a way of wasting those idle brain cycles. Instead, go shopping, or take a walk, or take a bike ride, clean your apartment -- do something that doesn't take much brain power. Inspiration will come more quickly under those circumstances. –  Ken Bloom Commented Jan 16, 2011 at 17:08
• 1 Geek: I know that #4 sounds a bit paradoxical, but sometimes, it really works for me; especially in situations where more than one approach seems possible and the problem is the selection of one of those approaches. #6 means not to be too restricted by the usual don'ts in our profession. Sometimes we have internalized rules like "avoid global variables" to the point that we unconsciously reject every solution that makes use of such deprecated technique. –  user281377 Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 7:15

Use R-mode or L-mode thinking as required

R-mode is the creative, non-verbal approach we commonly associate with the subconcious. L-mode is the linear, logical, verbal approach associated with your "inner voice".

If a problem appears to be intractible it is probably because you are attempting to solve it using the incorrect thinking mode. For programmers, the default thinking mode tends to be L-mode so it may work for you to switch it off temporarily and access R-mode.

How to access R-mode thinking

There are many ways, but perhaps try the Poincare method (named after the famous mathematician).

Write down everything you know about the problem. Immediately solve all the easy aspects of it (if any). Pick a single item from the remain "hard problems" list and then go off for a walk where you won't be disturbed or distracted.

Don't try to analyse the problem during the walk, just let your mind wander and observe any interesting images or sensations that arise that could be related to the problem. Let them coalesce. If inspiration strikes immediately stop the walk and return to write down the insight that you have gained.

Rinse and repeat until all problems have insights. Then start exploring the insights.

Book recommendation

Also reading Pragmatic Thinking and Learning may help you become a better problem solver. (I seem to be referencing this book a lot recently...)

• 4 Pragmatic Thinking and Learning was excellent –  Brad Cupit Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 19:26
• Ref: drawright.com/theory.htm (what R-mode and L-mode is) –  mctylr Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 17:04

Ask someone else...

No seriously. You biggest resource can be the person sitting next to you. Don't even ask them for the answer to the problem, ask them to sit next to you and let you explain the problem.

Often you'll work it out as you verbalise it.

Sometimes the other person will ask a question or point out a detail which will unlock the mental floodgate.

Eventually you will learn to verbalise things in your head without the use of a puppet, and spot the key details in the problem quicker.

And if all else fails at least they might be able to show you a technique which you wouldn't have thought of using.

• Asking others or forming study groups is an excellent way to learn. –  Gary Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 7:43
• i do the same, just to get idea from me and this is one of the best way. –  Viswa Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 4:29
• This technique is known as Rubber Ducking, excellent article about it in coding horror codinghorror.com/blog/2012/03/rubber-duck-problem-solving.html & wiki is also helpful en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging –  spats Commented Jan 11, 2014 at 14:55

Actually my short answer is "solving more problems". But the point is: Really concentrate on the problems and don't give up. Don't ask for help on StackOverflow or whatever. (Reading StackOverflow is ok of course!) Try hard until you get a nearly working solution, then you nearly reached your goal. And continue until you have a satisfying solution.

For me problem solving is two things:

• problem solving strategy
• persistence and frustration tolerance

Point 2 is really crucial in my opinion because it forces you to change your thinking the longer you are stuck with a problem. It also allows you to spend more time with problem solving allowing you to even more improve your skills. ;-)

By the way, I recommend you to read Edward de Bono. Though I aquired my problem solving skills mainly by studying Physics, his writing is really interesting.

Well and my problem solving toolkit is this:

• randomly try something
• read random articles/blogs/posts about the topic I am concerned with (or a closely connected topic)
• making a nice drawing
• split the problem into multiple but simpler problems
• do something else
• Google something that is related in some way to the problem
• talk to others about the problem
• make a TODO list
• write down stuff you know about the problem's effect so you can more easily find patterns

Please note that most of these tools can be applied recursively.

And my algorithm is this:

• Which tool of my problem solving toolkit makes most sense at the moment?
• Problem not solved? Continue with 1. ;-)

Step 1. is a tough decision, but you make better decisions the more you practice.

Oh and I nearly forget the most important ingredient:

Think positive about the whole process. Don't think "I hope XYZ will now solve the problem." Rather think: "If XYZ doesn't work then I know that YZX can't be the problem source and I will check if ZYX works." Problem solving can be fun sometimes in particular if your process of finding a problem ends up to be elegant and informative.

• I searched this page for the word "Physics" to see if someone already wrote about it. Mathematics is the other one. –  Mark C Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 5:34
• The value of studying physics with regard to your problem solving ability is hard to overstate, I think. –  Mark C Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 5:35
• +1 for thinking positive. If you find yourself getting worked up then your problem solving ability is impaired. Look at the problem as it giving you knowledge. –  Gary Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 7:49

Start working on the skill of identifying problems as well. Sometimes you have to recognize there is a problem before you can solve it. In school they require too many answers and not enough questions out of students.

Find people around you that solve problems and ask them how they go about it.

Be prepared to be wrong. You won't improve if you keep them all to yourself and you won't be of any use.

• +1 for "In school they require too many answers and not enough questions out of students." this is soo true and take time to learn to ask the right questions... check everywhere there are so many examples of bad question –  Rémi Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 15:32

The main benefit of a computer science education for software engineers is the ability to create and understand abstractions. Abstractions are used to encapsulate common functionality, such as String class methods, into tight, reusable packages that allow us to focus on the bigger problem.

Learn to recognize and create Abstractions :

But most importantly, abstractions teach us how to break a problem down into smaller, more manageable chunks . When combined with a science background, the combination of those skills can create an engineer capable of cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of the problem.

Learn to solve problems using the Scientific Method :

When troubleshooting a production application where a hard-to-find problem exists, sometimes it helps to actually break the application further (in a non-production environment) in order to eliminate several variables in order to isolate and eliminate one.

In summary, the scientific method, learned from taking all of the Physics electives and other science electives required for a computer science degree, helps solve these problems as if we were trying out a placebo and a new drug trial on a series of volunteers. Like scientists who sometimes have to make something worse in order to make it better, sometimes we as engineers must do the same.

Scientifically thinking in this manner can -- in general -- only come from having experience in a science background. Sometimes solving a problem can't be perceived as a linear path from A to B.

In short, study computer science, study other scientific fields, learn functional programming. These will help you think like a scientist and to think outside the box.

• Exactly. Break big problems into smaller problems. –  Bill Michell Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 13:12

It is all dependent on what type of problems you are aiming to solve, but learning to think logically if you already don't is a good thing.

All in all, and you are gonna hate me for saying it, but practice makes perfect. I didn't get pulled out of my mother's womb knowing how to be a good problem solver and no one else did. You need to practice and learn how to do things on your own. If you are still in school and don't have programming/computer science type classes, math and science are also quite good for fostering development of these skills.

I think what you are looking for is computer science heuristics.

When it comes down to what 99% of us do in the trenches, there really isn't anything new under the sun. So you might see a problem and recognize it as a DP problem, or another one as a problem that could benefit from memoization, etc...

How do you gain this knowledge? A proper CS degree is a good place to start... Not Software Engineering or Information Systems, but that stuff that most undergrads complain about "not being practical".

You can do this on your own, but it'll probably be harder. I'd start with these two courses:

Intro to Algorithms

Great Ideas in Theoretical CS

My answers relate specifically to coding but can be applied to anything.

• Step away from the keyboard. Talk a walk, go for a run, talk it over with a colleague over a coffee
• Become 10 years older! My experience has helped me enormously.
• Use Binary chop. Split the problem into two and narrow the problem: repeat.
• Remember Sherlock Holmes: When you have eliminated the possible, whatever remains (no matter how strange) is the answer
• Check your test data. Well over half of my really tricky problems have been caused by faulty data and not faulty code or algorithms.

In terms of practice, I can tell you what I do. I'm more interested in applied math, than programming, but applied math as applied to computing is programming of sorts. I see problems and solutions around. Before (or sometimes after, if say my job requires a timely solution), linking to a known solution -or existing code library, I like to ask myself: "If this were a virgin problem -i.e. you won't be able to find a canned solution, how would you proceed?" If the answer is somewhat straightforward consider writing a solution (analytic, or a computer program to solve it). Ignore complicating end cases,-you are interested in exloring approaches, and algorithms, not reinventing an existing library. If the solution will require too much effort, don't program the full solution, but at least think about the sorts of data structures and methods that you would want to use. Also think about alternative methods.

There's a great SO question on this.

My answer was:

The best way to improve is to practice! Subscribe to the RSS feed at: http://www.mensa.org.uk/puzzles/ and take time to complete them as they come out. A puzzle-a-day desk calendar (e.g. http://www.calendars.com/product.asp?PID=1&MGID=-1&IID=46387&cm_mmc=Affiliate_Program--performics--k137666-_-DDI%20Link ) is a good idea too as it will give you regular, bite-sized, and varied problems to solve. While these will invariably be off topic from the problems you will find yourself facing, the variety is important as it will force you think in ways you haven't before, which is really what problem solving is all about. Edit: Also check: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TMC.htm for good problem solving tips.

Playing chess is an excellent trainer for solving programming problems. The layers of problems and the logic trees relate very nicely. It also helps you to think ahead and plan before going down a suboptimal path and wasting time.

Chess also requires a balance between the left and right “thinking modes.” If you become too analytical, you can get bogged down in trying to calculate everything, which is impossible. However, every creative inspiration needs to be checked with a calculation to make sure it fits with the concrete reality of the situation. Hard problems are just like this.

Chess demonstrates how study and practice lead to solid improvement in a very linear fashion. This is true with program problem solving as well.

Playing chess can also help you get a good grasp on how much there is to learn. Even though you have been programming (or playing chess) for 10 years, you aren't a grandmaster yet.

• I have found my mind sharpened with regularly playing chess. –  Paul Nathan Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 17:41

I have recently been solving the problems at Project Euler . The problems are of varying difficulty. The solutions don't usually require large amounts of code, but you do have to consider many factors like run-time of your algorithm. You can use any language you like, as you just enter an answer. There is a good write-up of an optimal solution for many problems, and lots of discussion about each problem. Try to solve one problem every day and you will be amazed how much your problem solving and analysis improve. For extra credit, try solving the same problem in many languages, such as a procedural language (maybe C++), a scripting language (like python) and a functional language (like F#).

I come from a science background, so when I look at a problem, I tend to use tactics from the Scientific Method . I especially like to set up "experiments" based on hypotheses and use "controls", so I'll build something and then change/add only 1 thing about it and see what the result is of that one change/addition and if I'm not getting the result I need, I'll switch it back and change something else. This works well for troubleshooting/debugging code. Sometimes you get the answer you seek, but you always learn something new doing that even when you fail. I also like to learn through reductionism -- taking something that already exists (always good to start with something you may not understand, but you know works) and looks complex to me and seeing if I can break it down into its component parts and learn how they work first. It's sometimes easier for my brain to handle learning like this instead of approaching a problem holistically and I can use that knowledge to build other similar complex things myself. I also recommend reading books on logic and reasoning choosing works from both classical and modern thinkers (start with Aristotle and work your way up). They can give you some of the foundations of basic logic which you can use to help in problem solving in computers. And, of course, if you can't solve a problem and you've been working on it for awhile, take a brain break. Ruminating on a particular aspect of an issue is sometimes detrimental. Everyone needs breaks :)

The hardest part of problem-solving is "Perceptual Narrowing".

You pick something that appears to be the problem and doggedly go after that until you're exhausted and making no progress.

The way to do this is to be sure -- absolutely sure -- you really understand the problem. "Solving the Right Problem" is the most important part of problem-solving.

Sometimes they call this "thinking outside the box". "The box" is a narrow viewpoint that may not include the real, fundamental problem. Thinking outside the box is to look for the right problem to solve.

There are numerous books on strategies for avoiding the narrowing that goes with premature focus on the wrong problem.

Mostly the trick is to identify what the real outcome is supposed to be. Then figure out what blocks that desirable outcome.

Honestly I think everybody is different, so everyones road map to becoming a better problem solver is different. You can learn from other people's experience, but in the end you have to forge your own path. This is essentially learning something the "hard way", but it's effective in this case.

Here is how I started to improve my problem solving, though I am not a great problem solver yet, just a better one than I was last year. I was given a new project at work that involved extending a piece of open source time tracking software, by adding three new reports for management. This software was written in a language I had never used and it was poorly documented and highly obfuscated. I dug in and did a ton of research and then I just worked on the reports in baby steps, once I had basic functionality I improved upon them and then finally I added more features.

So, in other words, I recommend you find some sort of sink or swim real world project to work on. If you are currently employed as a programmer, find a project or ask your boss for one. If this scenario isn't possible find one outside of work, maybe contract/freelance work or something. I solve problems very well and very quickly when I have to and I retain that knowledge because of the intensity of the project. If this won't work for you then just do what everyone else on this thread suggests :).

The answer is itself in the Question by coming out with different solutions. There are always more than one solutions (e.g. Sorting can be done in different ways viz. Bubble Sort, Selections sort etc.) you just need to choose a way you can do it (Sorting) efficiently. Try with different next time and so on..... And books for Problem solving..... None You can not learn Problem solving skills from books, more code you will execute more knowledge you will gain. Good Luck

It's easy for a programmer to mentally attack a problem by visualizing how to solve the problem with their favourite programming language. Just like the classic carpenter who sees all problems as nails when his favourite tool is the hammer.

I think the best problem solving exercises comes when you get above the practical level and just think in terms of "this is what I would need in order to solve it in an optimal way". In some cases you may have to learn (a lot of) new stuff to apply the solution at all, but the key point is that your ability to work out a solution shouldn't be limited to your historical and existing techniques.

An old practical example for me is that I learned how to implement efficient cooperative multitasking when I realized that my problem didn't actually need preemptive threads, even though I usually would have gone right ahead to my comfort zone banging up all those mutexes (that eventually always seem to stop being comfortable at some point..).

In application development, many of the problems we face are either our own invention or the invention of the idiot we inherited that screwed up code base from. Resolving a problem most often comes down to finding the source . Often, once we find where it's happening, mere competence is what is needed to solve it.

To that end:

• Learn your platform.
• Learn your tools.
• Learn what tools are available for your platform that you haven't encountered yet.

All the brain training in the world is useless without information for the brain to use. In order to solve a problem, you must know what the possibilities are first! Even then, it's a lot quicker to work with good information rather than just a description of the problem.

I might speculate til the cows come home on why something is taking too long to execute. But if I say "lets get some data first", I might see that a whole lot of exceptions are being thrown and realize I could change this to an if statement instead. Without knowing how to collect the information, knowing that on my platform exceptions take quite a bit of overhead, and that there's a way to check before try that is faster, I'd never solve the problem.

There's two parts to your answer:

a) Technique's for the actual problem solving

b) Making your brain inherently "better" at thinking and problem solving

There's always been some great answers on technique (assume you know the problem etc) so I'm not going to cover that as much. As for training your brain, there's a couple of things you can do to cross those synapses and build more interconnections

1) Learn a new language, a real language (like french, or chinese might be a good bet these days)

2) Learn to play a new instrument

3) Do something artistic like paint, draw or sculpture

4) Play scrabble or do crosswords

5) Dance like you mean it. No, I'm not kidding. Dancing has been shown to have an impact on your brain and thinking

6) Broaden your experiences, innovative solutions came come from applying a theory in one field in another so study different fields and areas you find interesting

7) Exercise, exercise is crucially important to improving the thinking process

Finally, I'm going to offer my best tip for solving hard problems: take a long walk. I've found that it works miracles for clearing out your head and letting one contemplate problems

My advice would be to throw out the book!

Not literally of course. What I mean is, enter a topic area you have little experience in, and solve hard problems there, without learning about existing solutions. Rely on nothing but your creativity and critical thinking and perhaps a reference manual.

You might design an image format. Or a web server. Or a compression scheme. File system. Kernel. Artificial intelligence. Programming language. Computer vision system.

Something you find interesting, that is reasonably complex, and which you never learned about. Don't read about it: just jump straight in. Experiment. Make mistakes. Reinvent the wheel.

Don't ask for help. Stay away from tutorials. Stay away from the theory. Don't pull a solution off the shelf.

• We learn best from mistakes.
• It gives you an opportunity to practise coming up with solutions creatively, rather than regurgitating and adapting old solutions.
• You are forced to evaluate your ideas. You can't evaluate them without developing a good understanding of your tools, of the problem you're solving, and of the idea you wish to evaluate. This leads to a deeper understanding of the topic than you would otherwise develop. (Feel free to read about the tools you are using, just don't read about the problem you're trying to solve.)

Make a few attempts, and once you feel happy with what you've achieved, leave it for a few months. Then come back fresh and see if you can find a new perspective. After that, it's time to start reading about the problem and how others have solved it (or talking with people). At this point, instead of saying to yourself "yes, that makes sense" while you read, you'll say "yes, exactly ", or "well, to some extent", or "wow, that's clever".

In other words, you'll think much more critically about what you read, and you'll find it much easier to understand and remember because you already have a large "mental framework" to attach it to. You'll feel good about those things which you discovered independently, and you'll walk away with a heap of new knowledge.

Don't try to make your solution perfect. Just prove to yourself that you can solve the problem. Adopt a "can-do" attitude, and if you feel daunted by the problem, remember that the person who first solved it probably knew about as much as you do (in fact, they didn't know it had a solution!).

Problem solving isn't something that can be taught or even learned by reading. The only way to get better at solving problems is to solve problems.

There are different techniques and methodologies to problem solving that you can read about, and you can read about tools and technologies that you can use to solve problems in a particular domain. Unless you continually think about problems, try to come up with solutions (come up with multiple solutions for every problem and evaluate them against each other), and then evaluate your solutions against the solutions developed by others, you won't get better at problem solving.

I recommend picking up a copy of Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt . It's a book about understanding how you think, react, and learn. It brings in relevant theories from behavioral theory and other cognitive sciences. It's specifically geared toward software developers, but applicable to any knowledge worker.

For newbies in programming like myself I recommend the book "Think Like a Programmer". In the first chapter it covers such problem solving techniques as restating and dividing the problem, starting with what you know, reducing, analogies and experimenting.

Then there are more advanced techniques with examples in C++: solving problems with arrays, pointers and dynamic memory, classes, recursion, code reuse. I cannot comment on this part because it's too hard for me yet.

I solve as many problems as possible. I also like some puzzle books like this one . I also tinker with problem solving games, like math games involving prime numbers or something, sudoku, the Tower of Hanoi, etc. Just find things to solve. Also, code it out when possible.

Bye solving a LOT of problems!

you start with easy problems and you move up to more harder problems once the easy ones become a routine instead of problems.

Don't keep yourself to theory, do more practice. With practice comes experience.

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How to Improve Mathematical Thinking and General Problem Solving Skills?

I'm a sophomore in university and seriously feel that I'm bad at solving mathematical and algorithmic problems (be it discrete math, calculus or just puzzles). I noticed that I'm only good at solving questions that are similar to the ones that have been taught to us.

Here's how I generally approach it:

• What is the problem? What do I need to do here?
• Does it look like I've encountered this before?
• Can I think of a smaller problem to solve instead?

If the answer is no to all the above then I sort of blank out. I stare at it and force my brain to run through a wide variety of stuff, almost like a brute force attempt of solving it. Obviously that leads me to nowhere everytime. I simply can't think "outside the box."

What can I do to improve my situation?

• soft-question
• problem-solving
• $\begingroup$ What kinds of questions are you talking about? I think a lot of it does come down to recognizing certain tricks and patterns, and you build up this ability with experience. How often do people truly think outside of the box? $\endgroup$ –  wj32 Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 20:57
• 3 $\begingroup$ "What can I do to improve my situation?" (1) Do A LOT of problems. (2) Read George Polya's "How To Solve It" $\endgroup$ –  BobaFret Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:05
• $\begingroup$ Hmm not exactly sure how to answer this. Just questions in general on any topic say textbook practice problems or questions in: projecteuler.net/problems although these are more math puzzle types. $\endgroup$ –  Charles Khunt Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:06
• 1 $\begingroup$ I think that how we perceive ourselves, specifically how we perceive ourselves in terms of "what I'm good at" or "what I'm bad at" can be self-fulfilling. I think one's attitude when encountering novel situations, in general, like new problems, has a lot to do with how successful one is in handling the situation: if one develops confidence in one's competence, one is more likely to persevere . One can be fearful, intimidated (retreat); one can feel challenged and stimulated; etc... $\endgroup$ –  amWhy Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:07
• 1 $\begingroup$ I added a couple tags; hopefully, these tags will counter the "not constructive" close vote. $\endgroup$ –  Emily Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:08

6 Answers 6

You might want to read Thinking Mathematically . (I read it and it's excellent. It will teach you exactly what you're looking for.)

• 2 $\begingroup$ Hear hear! A terrific book: we've based part of a course on reading and doing maths for our first year undergrads on it. It helps them not just with problem solving, but also with understanding what it is we do when we do maths. $\endgroup$ –  user12477 Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:15
• 1 $\begingroup$ @amWhy That's a different book. See this instead. $\endgroup$ –  Michael Greinecker Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:24
• $\begingroup$ @Michael: thanks for checking that out and pointing it out!...oops, seems I've posted an incorrect link! I'll delete it at once! $\endgroup$ –  amWhy Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:38
• $\begingroup$ Dear @amWhy, I read your now deleted comment as an alternative recommendation. $\endgroup$ –  Rudy the Reindeer Commented Nov 2, 2012 at 7:34
• $\begingroup$ @MattN Thanks for your comment; I'll "repost" the link here as a different book, perhaps worth looking into. $\endgroup$ –  amWhy Commented Nov 2, 2012 at 13:19

I belonged to a school education system where we were made to do lots of different problems, but we were never told to try and understand the underlying theory behind the problems. This made me scared of math. What I basically had was a cookbook of a variety of wonderful recipes without realizing why I needed to add salt or sugar to a dish. May be you are facing the same problem? May be you are learning all these different techniques to solve problems without really understanding the theory behind why the problems can be solved using those techniques? Hence, because you don't understand the theory behind the techniques, once you get a problem that cannot be solved using the techniques you are familiar with, you get stuck.

While I agree with glebovg that trying to develop an intuition for how to write proofs is essential, I feel that you should make the effort to start reading proofs first. For instance, a book that really helped me understand Calculus was Spivak's Calculus. Try going through the proofs there, and learn the underlying theory. This is coming from someone who was in your position not too long ago.

I encourage you to read books that emphasize problem solving, but at some point you will just have muster the courage to open a book with proofs, and read through it.

Also, the issue of memorization is kind of a slippery slope. You will find that often even when you are trying to understand the theory, you will just have to memorize some computational techniques here and there. I think Terry Tao has a good post where he addresses the issue of memorization. I agree with him that certain basic things have to be memorized. For instance, you will have to memorize what the axioms of a group or a field are. I think memorization and understanding go hand in hand. Certainly your goal should not be to only memorize techniques to solve problems.

Here is more advice from a master:

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/solving-mathematical-problems/

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/there%E2%80%99s-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/there%E2%80%99s-more-to-mathematics-than-grades-and-exams-and-methods/

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-to-be-a-genius-to-do-maths/

All the best!

• $\begingroup$ A very insightful answer and suggested readings! $\endgroup$ –  user1007190 Commented Dec 30, 2023 at 5:25

I think proving theorems really develops your thinking. Try to prove a few important theorems from calculus as well as discrete math, or try to understand someone's proof. Of course, the more you know the better, so that is why we say math is not a spectator sport. You need to do more than just the homework if you want to improve. Sometimes many results that you learn in, say discrete math, might seem confusing, but once you see why they are important in a different context, for example in number theory or algebra, you should remember them. To be honest, I think understanding and being able to prove theorems is actually relevant to math, whereas puzzles are just for fun. The best advice I can give is: Do not try to memorize math and simply remember everything for an exam because that way you might get a good grade, but you will forget everything a few days after the exam, instead try to understand why something is true. This way you will remember something practically forever, because you will be able to derive it when you forget.

I don't know about puzzles, so I write only about solving mathematics problems. In my experiences in this site, I find it far easier to solve problems in a field(like abstract algebra) I know well than in a field(like analysis) I know less. I think it's like walking in a town. If the town is where you live, you know every corner and you think you can almost walk with blindfold. On the other hand, if you are new in the town, you lose your way easily.

So the question is how we know a field well. Read textbooks, understand proofs, try to prove a theorem before reading the proof of a textbook. Reconstruct a proof without seeing a textbook. do exercises, try to find examples and counterexamples, try to find problems by yourself and solve them, etc.

I got a PhD and a postdoc in pure mathematics and I just can talk from my experience. I think that mathematical thinking can be improved with your experience solving problems and reading. For me, there are 2 options.

Option 1: improve your mathematical thinking by yourself. This means trying to approach the problem from all the possible points of view that you can imagine. Organize them, try to apply them one by one and draw a lot. Try to improvise and start solving similar problems in simpler versions. This is very hard to do, especially when you learn in a systematic way because this requires creativity but if you spend time doing this even if you don't solve it you can grow a lot and develop intuition. Warning! Do not spend more than 1 week with the same problem. Not all people solve problems quickly and that is just fine. If you cannot solve a problem after your hard work is a good idea to ask for help (books, mentors, the internet, etc) or just leave it in a special list and move forward. You will be able to solve that list in the future. Reading some comments reminds me that teaching to others the exercises that you can solve is a very powerful way to improve your mathematical thinking, it helps to organize your knowledge and discipline your mind. Please be patient with others. Some day someone will be patient with you and you will need it!!!

Option 2: improve your mathematical thinking using help. Some people may think that asking for help from others or books destroys your creativity and limit your mathematical thinking to the creativity of others. But only a few gifted can afford that. I think that there is nothing wrong with gathering some strategies of others to enrich your own bunch of tools. Consult a friend, professor, books or forums like this. When you ask for help the method to solve a problem is something that you haven't thought of, however, the new experience can help you to solve new problems in the future. When you are facing a new kind of problem and you do not have a clue where to start, look for examples and solved exercises. If you are in high school most likely there is a lot of reading material, examples and solved exercises for the topics that you are interested in.

In the end, your experience solving problems and your background will develop your mathematical thinking, and you can do it using options 1 and 2.

Old thread, but I came across this and wanted to pitch in my 2 cents.

I remember when I first got to college and was studying mechanical engineering. My high school education taught me the plug-n-chug method of thinking, so topics like differential equations, physics, let alone, linear algebra, dynamics, thermo, mechanics, etc. were really really difficult for me.

Somehow I struggled through it though, and graduated, but I always felt uneasy about having as solid of problem-solving skills in my educational foundation as I wanted on it. Especially since I was now working (tho my day-to-day work didn't require those specific skills). I ended up making a hack solution and practiced one math or physics problem a day on my own. I felt like I really came to understand those things since now I took the time to go through them myself, and see where all the formulas were derived from. Knowing that, I knew better when I could apply an equation, and in what manner.

I actually came across this site later: www.learnerds.com which pretty much was what I was looking for. An interesting (semi-realistic) math/engineering/science question a day with a good solution, and the authors are great at responding back to your comments, regardless of your level.

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26 Expert-Backed Problem Solving Examples – Interview Answers

Published: February 13, 2023

Interview Questions and Answers

Actionable advice from real experts:

Biron Clark

Former Recruiter

Contributor

Dr. Kyle Elliott

Career Coach

Hayley Jukes

Editor-in-Chief

Biron Clark , Former Recruiter

Kyle Elliott , Career Coach

Hayley Jukes , Editor

As a recruiter , I know employers like to hire people who can solve problems and work well under pressure.

 A job rarely goes 100% according to plan, so hiring managers are more likely to hire you if you seem like you can handle unexpected challenges while staying calm and logical.

But how do they measure this?

Hiring managers will ask you interview questions about your problem-solving skills, and they might also look for examples of problem-solving on your resume and cover letter. 

In this article, I’m going to share a list of problem-solving examples and sample interview answers to questions like, “Give an example of a time you used logic to solve a problem?” and “Describe a time when you had to solve a problem without managerial input. How did you handle it, and what was the result?”

• Problem-solving involves identifying, prioritizing, analyzing, and solving problems using a variety of skills like critical thinking, creativity, decision making, and communication.
• Describe the Situation, Task, Action, and Result ( STAR method ) when discussing your problem-solving experiences.
• Tailor your interview answer with the specific skills and qualifications outlined in the job description.
• Provide numerical data or metrics to demonstrate the tangible impact of your problem-solving efforts.

What are Problem Solving Skills? 

Problem-solving is the ability to identify a problem, prioritize based on gravity and urgency, analyze the root cause, gather relevant information, develop and evaluate viable solutions, decide on the most effective and logical solution, and plan and execute implementation. 

Problem-solving encompasses other skills that can be showcased in an interview response and your resume. Problem-solving skills examples include:

• Critical thinking
• Analytical skills
• Decision making
• Research skills
• Technical skills
• Communication skills
• Adaptability and flexibility

Why is Problem Solving Important in the Workplace?

Problem-solving is essential in the workplace because it directly impacts productivity and efficiency. Whenever you encounter a problem, tackling it head-on prevents minor issues from escalating into bigger ones that could disrupt the entire workflow. 

Beyond maintaining smooth operations, your ability to solve problems fosters innovation. It encourages you to think creatively, finding better ways to achieve goals, which keeps the business competitive and pushes the boundaries of what you can achieve. 

Effective problem-solving also contributes to a healthier work environment; it reduces stress by providing clear strategies for overcoming obstacles and builds confidence within teams. 

Examples of Problem-Solving in the Workplace

• Correcting a mistake at work, whether it was made by you or someone else
• Overcoming a delay at work through problem solving and communication
• Resolving an issue with a difficult or upset customer
• Overcoming issues related to a limited budget, and still delivering good work through the use of creative problem solving
• Overcoming a scheduling/staffing shortage in the department to still deliver excellent work
• Troubleshooting and resolving technical issues
• Handling and resolving a conflict with a coworker
• Solving any problems related to money, customer billing, accounting and bookkeeping, etc.
• Taking initiative when another team member overlooked or missed something important
• Taking initiative to meet with your superior to discuss a problem before it became potentially worse
• Solving a safety issue at work or reporting the issue to those who could solve it
• Using problem solving abilities to reduce/eliminate a company expense
• Finding a way to make the company more profitable through new service or product offerings, new pricing ideas, promotion and sale ideas, etc.
• Changing how a process, team, or task is organized to make it more efficient
• Using creative thinking to come up with a solution that the company hasn’t used before
• Performing research to collect data and information to find a new solution to a problem
• Boosting a company or team’s performance by improving some aspect of communication among employees
• Finding a new piece of data that can guide a company’s decisions or strategy better in a certain area

Problem-Solving Examples for Recent Grads/Entry-Level Job Seekers

• Coordinating work between team members in a class project
• Reassigning a missing team member’s work to other group members in a class project
• Adjusting your workflow on a project to accommodate a tight deadline
• Speaking to your professor to get help when you were struggling or unsure about a project
• Asking classmates, peers, or professors for help in an area of struggle
• Talking to your academic advisor to brainstorm solutions to a problem you were facing
• Researching solutions to an academic problem online, via Google or other methods
• Using problem solving and creative thinking to obtain an internship or other work opportunity during school after struggling at first

How To Answer “Tell Us About a Problem You Solved”

When you answer interview questions about problem-solving scenarios, or if you decide to demonstrate your problem-solving skills in a cover letter (which is a good idea any time the job description mentions problem-solving as a necessary skill), I recommend using the STAR method.

STAR stands for:

It’s a simple way of walking the listener or reader through the story in a way that will make sense to them. 

Start by briefly describing the general situation and the task at hand. After this, describe the course of action you chose and why. Ideally, show that you evaluated all the information you could given the time you had, and made a decision based on logic and fact. Finally, describe the positive result you achieved.

Note: Our sample answers below are structured following the STAR formula. Be sure to check them out!

EXPERT ADVICE

Dr. Kyle Elliott , MPA, CHES Tech & Interview Career Coach caffeinatedkyle.com

How can I communicate complex problem-solving experiences clearly and succinctly?

Before answering any interview question, it’s important to understand why the interviewer is asking the question in the first place.

When it comes to questions about your complex problem-solving experiences, for example, the interviewer likely wants to know about your leadership acumen, collaboration abilities, and communication skills, not the problem itself.

Therefore, your answer should be focused on highlighting how you excelled in each of these areas, not diving into the weeds of the problem itself, which is a common mistake less-experienced interviewees often make.

Tailoring Your Answer Based on the Skills Mentioned in the Job Description

As a recruiter, one of the top tips I can give you when responding to the prompt “Tell us about a problem you solved,” is to tailor your answer to the specific skills and qualifications outlined in the job description. 

Once you’ve pinpointed the skills and key competencies the employer is seeking, craft your response to highlight experiences where you successfully utilized or developed those particular abilities. 

For instance, if the job requires strong leadership skills, focus on a problem-solving scenario where you took charge and effectively guided a team toward resolution. 

By aligning your answer with the desired skills outlined in the job description, you demonstrate your suitability for the role and show the employer that you understand their needs.

Amanda Augustine expands on this by saying:

“Showcase the specific skills you used to solve the problem. Did it require critical thinking, analytical abilities, or strong collaboration? Highlight the relevant skills the employer is seeking.”  

Interview Answers to “Tell Me About a Time You Solved a Problem”

Now, let’s look at some sample interview answers to, “Give me an example of a time you used logic to solve a problem,” or “Tell me about a time you solved a problem,” since you’re likely to hear different versions of this interview question in all sorts of industries.

The example interview responses are structured using the STAR method and are categorized into the top 5 key problem-solving skills recruiters look for in a candidate.

1. Analytical Thinking

Situation: In my previous role as a data analyst , our team encountered a significant drop in website traffic.

Task: I was tasked with identifying the root cause of the decrease.

Action: I conducted a thorough analysis of website metrics, including traffic sources, user demographics, and page performance. Through my analysis, I discovered a technical issue with our website’s loading speed, causing users to bounce. 

Result: By optimizing server response time, compressing images, and minimizing redirects, we saw a 20% increase in traffic within two weeks.

2. Critical Thinking

Situation: During a project deadline crunch, our team encountered a major technical issue that threatened to derail our progress.

Task: My task was to assess the situation and devise a solution quickly.

Action: I immediately convened a meeting with the team to brainstorm potential solutions. Instead of panicking, I encouraged everyone to think outside the box and consider unconventional approaches. We analyzed the problem from different angles and weighed the pros and cons of each solution.

Result: By devising a workaround solution, we were able to meet the project deadline, avoiding potential delays that could have cost the company $100,000 in penalties for missing contractual obligations.

3. Decision Making

Situation: As a project manager , I was faced with a dilemma when two key team members had conflicting opinions on the project direction.

Task: My task was to make a decisive choice that would align with the project goals and maintain team cohesion.

Action: I scheduled a meeting with both team members to understand their perspectives in detail. I listened actively, asked probing questions, and encouraged open dialogue. After carefully weighing the pros and cons of each approach, I made a decision that incorporated elements from both viewpoints.

Result: The decision I made not only resolved the immediate conflict but also led to a stronger sense of collaboration within the team. By valuing input from all team members and making a well-informed decision, we were able to achieve our project objectives efficiently.

4. Communication (Teamwork)

Situation: During a cross-functional project, miscommunication between departments was causing delays and misunderstandings.

Task: My task was to improve communication channels and foster better teamwork among team members.

Action: I initiated regular cross-departmental meetings to ensure that everyone was on the same page regarding project goals and timelines. I also implemented a centralized communication platform where team members could share updates, ask questions, and collaborate more effectively.

Result: Streamlining workflows and improving communication channels led to a 30% reduction in project completion time, saving the company $25,000 in operational costs.

5. Persistence 

Situation: During a challenging sales quarter, I encountered numerous rejections and setbacks while trying to close a major client deal.

Task: My task was to persistently pursue the client and overcome obstacles to secure the deal.

Action: I maintained regular communication with the client, addressing their concerns and demonstrating the value proposition of our product. Despite facing multiple rejections, I remained persistent and resilient, adjusting my approach based on feedback and market dynamics.

Result: After months of perseverance, I successfully closed the deal with the client. By closing the major client deal, I exceeded quarterly sales targets by 25%, resulting in a revenue increase of $250,000 for the company.

Tips to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills

Throughout your career, being able to showcase and effectively communicate your problem-solving skills gives you more leverage in achieving better jobs and earning more money .

So to improve your problem-solving skills, I recommend always analyzing a problem and situation before acting.

 When discussing problem-solving with employers, you never want to sound like you rush or make impulsive decisions. They want to see fact-based or data-based decisions when you solve problems.

Don’t just say you’re good at solving problems. Show it with specifics. How much did you boost efficiency? Did you save the company money? Adding numbers can really make your achievements stand out.

To get better at solving problems, analyze the outcomes of past solutions you came up with. You can recognize what works and what doesn’t.

Think about how you can improve researching and analyzing a situation, how you can get better at communicating, and deciding on the right people in the organization to talk to and “pull in” to help you if needed, etc.

Finally, practice staying calm even in stressful situations. Take a few minutes to walk outside if needed. Step away from your phone and computer to clear your head. A work problem is rarely so urgent that you cannot take five minutes to think (with the possible exception of safety problems), and you’ll get better outcomes if you solve problems by acting logically instead of rushing to react in a panic.

You can use all of the ideas above to describe your problem-solving skills when asked interview questions about the topic. If you say that you do the things above, employers will be impressed when they assess your problem-solving ability.

More Interview Resources

• 3 Answers to “How Do You Handle Stress?”
• How to Answer “How Do You Handle Conflict?” (Interview Question)
• Sample Answers to “Tell Me About a Time You Failed”

About the Author

Biron Clark is a former executive recruiter who has worked individually with hundreds of job seekers, reviewed thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and recruited for top venture-backed startups and Fortune 500 companies. He has been advising job seekers since 2012 to think differently in their job search and land high-paying, competitive positions. Follow on Twitter and LinkedIn .

Read more articles by Biron Clark

About the Contributor

Kyle Elliott , career coach and mental health advocate, transforms his side hustle into a notable practice, aiding Silicon Valley professionals in maximizing potential. Follow Kyle on LinkedIn .

About the Editor

Hayley Jukes is the Editor-in-Chief at CareerSidekick with five years of experience creating engaging articles, books, and transcripts for diverse platforms and audiences.

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Fact Check: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say 'A Problem Is Not A Problem'

• Aug 2, 2024
• by: Uliana Malashenko

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "a problem is not a problem" as part of a longer quote in a meme circulating on social media? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the vice president's office answered "no" by email when Lead Stories asked if the quote was real. Lead Stories could find no video or news articles indicating Harris ever said the words in the meme.

The claim resurfaced in a post (archived here ) on Instagram on July 27, 2024. It showed an image of Harris with the following inscription:

THE PROBLEM OF SOLVING A PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM, BUT WHEN A PROBLEM SOLVES A PROBLEM WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM, THEN THE PROBLEM IS NOT AT ALL A PROBLEM.

When asked whether Harris made the comment that is the focus of this fact check, a spokesman for the vice president's office told Lead Stories via email on August 2, 2024, that the answer is "no."

The quote in question started to circulate on social media on January 20, 2024. Such examples can be found on X, formerly known as Twitter (archived here ), and Reddit (archived here ). Those entries did not contain any elaboration about when and where Harris supposedly made the cited remark.

By January 2024, she had already been in the public eye for decades, including the first three years of serving as vice president.

A Google search (archived here ) across U.S. government websites for the fragment of the purported quote did not produce any results. Had Harris made the comment posted on Instagram and elsewhere, it would likely have been reflected in official transcripts.

A search for the same fragment across news publications indexed by Google News (archived here ) did not lead to any credible reporting confirming the quote. It did show that Snopes has reviewed the same claim.

Lead Stories previously debunked other claims that misattributed similar quotes to Harris. For example, she did not say that "Olympians are Olympic ."

Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Kamala Harris can be found here . Stories about the 2024 U.S. presidential election are here .

Uliana Malashenko is a  New York-based freelance writer and fact checker. Read more about or contact Uliana Malashenko

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet. Spotted something? Let us know! .

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Fact Check: Poll Managers In Myrtle Beach Have NO Reason To Write On Ballot And It Will NOT Be Disqualified If A Poll Manager Writes On It

Fact Check: Kamala Harris Descended From A Slave Owner, But It's Not 'An Inconvenient Part Of Her History' Or A 'Deep, Dark Secret' That 'Could Come Back To Haunt Her'

Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Olympic Athlete Vomiting Because He Swam In Seine -- He Cited Heat

Fact Check: Power Outages In Paris Day After Olympics Opening Ceremony Were Small

Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Walk 'Into An Empty Plane For No Reason' After Prisoner Exchange With Russia -- He Thanked Crew Still On Board

Fact Check: Kamala Harris' Birth Certificate Does NOT Identify Her As 'Caucasian'

Fact Check: Photo Does NOT Show Undamaged Ear In Immediate Weeks After Trump Shooting

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Fact Check: NO Evidence Joe Rogan Is Suing MSNBC For $30 Million For A Deceptive Video Edit That Made Him Look Pro-Kamala Harris

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Fact Check: WHO Did NOT Call For 'Military To Roundup mRNA Vaccine Refusers During Bird Flu Pandemic' In August 2024

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How machines that can solve complex math problems might usher in more powerful AI

Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 are milestones for AI reasoning.

• Melissa Heikkilä archive page

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here .

It’s been another big week in AI. Meta updated its powerful new Llama model, which it’s handing out for free, and OpenAI said it is going to trial an AI-powered online search tool that you can chat with, called SearchGPT. 

But the news item that really stood out to me was one that didn’t get as much attention as it should have. It has the potential to usher in more powerful AI and scientific discovery than previously possible. 

Last Thursday, Google DeepMind announced it had built AI systems that can solve complex math problems. The systems—called AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2—worked together to successfully solve four out of six problems from this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad, a prestigious competition for high school students. Their performance was the equivalent of winning a silver medal. It’s the first time any AI system has ever achieved such a high success rate on these kinds of problems.  My colleague Rhiannon Williams has the news here . 

Math! I can already imagine your eyes glazing over. But bear with me. This announcement is not just about math.  In fact, it signals an exciting new development in the kind of AI we can now build.  AI search engines that you can chat with may add to the illusion of intelligence, but systems like Google DeepMind’s could improve the actual intelligence of AI. For that reason, building systems that are better at math has been a goal for many AI labs, such as  OpenAI .  

That’s because math is a benchmark for reasoning . To complete these exercises aimed at high school students, the AI system needed to do very complex things like planning to understand and solve abstract problems. The systems were also able to generalize, allowing them to solve a whole range of different problems in various  branches of mathematics. 

“What we’ve seen here is that you can combine [reinforcement learning] that was so successful in things like AlphaGo with large language models and produce something which is extremely capable in the space of text,” David Silver, principal research scientist at Google DeepMind and indisputably a pioneer of deep reinforcement learning, said in a press briefing. In this case, that capability was used to construct programs in the computer language Lean that represent mathematical proofs. He says the International Mathematical Olympiad represents a test for what’s possible and paves the way for further breakthroughs. 

This same recipe could be applied in any situation with really clear, verified reward signals for reinforcement-learning algorithms and an unambiguous way to measure correctness as you can in mathematics, said Silver. One potential application would be coding, for example. 

Now for a compulsory reality check:  AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 can still only solve hard high-school-level problems. That’s a long way away from the extremely hard problems top human mathematicians can solve. Google DeepMind stressed that its tool did not, at this point, add anything to the body of mathematical knowledge humans have created. But that wasn’t the point. 

“We are aiming to provide a system that can prove anything,” Silver said. Think of an AI system as reliable as a calculator, for example, that can provide proofs for many challenging problems, or verify tests for computer software or scientific experiments. Or perhaps build better AI tutors that can give feedback on exam results, or fact-check news articles. 

But the thing that excites me most is what Katie Collins, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who specializes in math and AI (and was not involved in the project), told Rhiannon.  She says these tools create and evaluate new problems, motivate new people to enter the field, and spark more wonder. That’s something we definitely need more of in this world.

Now read the rest of The Algorithm

Deeper learning.

A new tool for copyright holders can show if their work is in AI training data

Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, content creators have argued that their work has been scraped into AI models without their consent. But until now, it has been difficult to know whether specific text has actually been used in a training data set. Now they have a new way to prove it: “copyright traps.” These are pieces of hidden text that let you mark written content in order to later detect whether it has been used in AI models or not. 

Why this matters:  Copyright traps tap into one of the biggest fights in AI. A number of publishers and writers are in the middle of litigation against tech companies, claiming their intellectual property has been scraped into AI training data sets without their permission. The idea is that these traps could help to nudge the balance a little more in the content creators’ favor.  Read more from me here . 

Bits and Bytes

AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage New research published in Nature shows that the quality of AI models’ output gradually degrades when it’s trained on AI-generated data. As subsequent models produce output that is then used as training data for future models, the effect gets worse. ( MIT Technology Review ) 

OpenAI unveils SearchGPT  The company says it is testing new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources cited. The idea is for the technology to eventually be incorporated into ChatGPT, and CEO  Sam Altman says  it’ll be possible to do voice searches. However, like many other AI-powered search services, including  Google’s , it’s already making errors, as  the Atlantic  reports.  ( OpenAI ) 

AI video generator Runway trained on thousands of YouTube videos without permission Leaked documents show that the company was secretly training its generative AI models by scraping thousands of videos from popular YouTube creators and brands, as well as pirated films. ( 404 media ) 

Artificial intelligence

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How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play

AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersive.

• Niall Firth archive page

Synthesia’s hyperrealistic deepfakes will soon have full bodies

With bodies that move and hands that wave, deepfakes just got a whole lot more realistic.

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Emrs: a simple ai use case to solve a big problem.

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Alex Waddell, Chief Information Officer, Adobe Population Health Leadership .

Rarely are electronic medical records (EMRs) liked by those who use them. They are often seen as a barrier to care. This is due to two major problems: inaccessible data and the time it takes to chart accurately.

EMRs have a problem with inaccessible data due to the nature of data modeling and user interface design. Often, pertinent information is hidden deep in the chart, and clinicians—who may have five minutes before a visit to brush up on the patient’s history—are stuck fumbling around a system trying to uncover valuable information.

The time it takes to chart is also a difficult problem. No matter how advanced your EMR is, the clinician must still write out their note. They can fill out hundreds of assessment questions as drop downs and check boxes but must sit down and write a text summary of what was captured in those structured data points. They must also provide context in areas that cannot be captured in a drop-down, such as how they addressed an issue. This precious time that should be spent with the patient discussing how to solve complex medical and social challenges is often rushed due to a need to provide the organization with documentation. Those who do not limit time with patients are left charting after the visit to catch up, frustrating the clinician and opening the opportunity for charting mistakes.

So, how does artificial intelligence (AI) help solve this problem? The answer is by using natural language processing for summarization. Imagine a world where a clinician accesses a chart and there is already a summary of the patient's medical history waiting for them, which could stretch across months or years of visits with that person. For those who have the time to deep dive into charts before the visit, this extra time can be spent preparing to see the patient. For those who do not have the time and therefore miss out on the historical context of the patient’s chart, they now have insight into critical data that may change the direction of the visit for the better.

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Once a visit is complete, the clinician could trigger a natural language model to collect essential information and pre-fill much of the notes for them. This leaves the clinician with the easier task of simply editing the prompt that the AI created and adding any missing information.

In the healthcare industry, we have spent the last decade creating paper assessments, charts and EMRs to gather and maintain valuable data insights, but in the process, we have created unworkable systems for those on the front lines. As technologists, we must not forget those we build systems for and ensure they help clinicians provide quality care.

In doing this, organizations can reap significant returns in opportunity gains. That may be fitting in another visit or two due to time saved or enabling more informed decisions that could positively impact a patient's life and ultimately reduce costs for the patient and healthcare system.

When considering AI use cases in your organization, do not lose sight of the low-hanging fruit. AI does not need to be complicated or expensive. Start by looking at how you can drive efficiencies within your organization, giving time back to those who do the work.

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From climate change to landfill, AI promises to solve Earth’s big environmental problems – but there’s a hitch

Senior Researcher, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University

Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Business and Hospitality, Torrens University Australia

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Ehsan Noroozinejad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article.

Seyedali Mirjalili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised our lives in myriad ways, from personalising our social media feeds to giving us driving directions and monitoring our health.

In recent years, hopes have grown that AI may also help humanity tackle global environmental problems such as climate change.

AI involves using computers to make them think like humans. It can solve complex problems and process huge amounts of data.

But the technology brings with it a host of environmental costs. Here, we weigh up the pros and cons.

4 ways AI can help the natural world

Energy efficiency

AI systems can control and optimise energy use. For example, AI-powered “ smart grids ” monitor and manage electricity generation to meet the demand of consumers, which can both lower energy costs and allow for more efficient energy use.

AI can also help streamline the energy used by big commercial and industrial systems. Tech giant Google, for instance, used AI to cut the amount of energy required to cool its data centres by 40% .

Urban Infrastructure

Waste management systems driven by AI may help increase recycling rates. In the United Kingdom, for example, recycling company Recycleye uses AI to identify materials for sorting, lowering contamination rates and increasing recycling volumes – and so, reducing pressure on landfill.

And AI-powered “ smart cities ” technologies help make public transport systems work more smoothly, which can reduce congestion and minimise vehicle emissions.

Artificial intelligence can also be deployed to improve air quality in cities. IBM, for example, uses the technology to analyse weather and air pollution data from sensors and satellites. This can help authorities pinpoint pollution sources, make air quality forecasts and issue health alerts.

Sustainable agriculture

AI-powered smart machines, robots and sensors are already used in agriculture.

They can provide real-time monitoring of weather, soil conditions and crop needs, leading to better water use and ensuring crops receive only what they need.

The technology can also identify pests , reducing the need to spray chemical pesticides on crops.

As climate change worsens, there are hopes AI can help farmers avoid reduced crop yields and become more resilient.

Environmental monitoring

AI systems can forecast floods, bushfires and other natural hazards quickly and accurately. This can minimise the effects of natural hazards on both the environment and communities.

AI can be used to track environmental change. For example, it can reportedly measure changes in icebergs 10,000 times faster than a human can.

Meanwhile, environmental group The Nature Conservancy uses AI to minimise the environmental impacts of hydropower across the Amazon.

But what about the downsides?

The path to realising the potential of AI is fraught – and the technology comes with several major downsides, as outlined below.

Artificial intelligence guzzles a huge amount of energy. First the computer models must be “trained”, or fed a large set of data. This feeding can be relatively quick, or take up to several months – during which time big data processors are running 24/7.

And when we ask AI to solve a problem, this also requires processing power which consumes energy. Advanced AI models such as ChatGPT reportedly use ten times more energy per search than a conventional Google search, according to one estimate. Only a small fraction of this demand is met by renewable energy sources.

The International Energy Agency projects electricity consumption from data centres, AI and cryptocurrency sector could double in the four years to 2026, from 460 terawatt-hours in 2022 to more than 1,000 terrawatt-hours in 2026.

By comparison, total electricity generation in Australia in 2022 was around 273 terawatt-hours .

Greener AI systems are urgently needed – and this is looking increasingly possible. Studies have shown the energy use of AI-based computer models can be slashed through various means, such as reducing a model’s complexity without affecting its performance.

Water impacts

The water requirements of AI are significant . The data centres housing powerful AI servers generate a lot of heat. Water is used in cooling to keep the servers at operating temperature.

AI also consumes water indirectly through its energy consumption. Coal-fired power stations use water for cooling, and water is also lost through evaporation from hydro electricity schemes.

And as others have noted , the mining and manufacturing required to produce AI hardware both uses and pollutes water.

Broader environmental damage

The environmental impact of AI goes beyond its energy use. For example, as Scientific American has reported , ExxonMobil in 2019 partnered with Microsoft to deploy AI in oil extraction, substantially increasing production.

As the article also noted, the use of AI in targeted online advertising – on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook – creates demand for material goods. This leads to greater consumption of mass-produced items which creates carbon emissions and uses Earth’s natural resources.

Where to now?

As AI becomes more integrated into modern life, its environmental footprint will grow. Humanity must find the right balance to ensure AI helps the Earth, rather than harms it.

To better achieve this, standard criteria must be developed to accurately measure the effects of AI on the environment.

There is also a push from some quarters for more environmental regulation of AI, and greater transparency from companies about their AI-related emissions.

But efforts to make AI more environmentally friendly will struggle for public and industry acceptance if the effectiveness of AI systems is sacrificed. To avoid this, stronger collaboration between researchers and the AI industry is needed .

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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Elon?

Linda Yaccarino, the C.E.O. of X, has worked hard to bring back advertisers and fix the platform’s business. But its owner, Elon Musk, is always one whim away from undoing her work.

By Kate Conger

Kate Conger has been covering X ever since she joined The New York Times in 2018, back when it was still called Twitter.

Late last year, Linda Yaccarino reached out to Don Lemon’s agent with an offer.

Ms. Yaccarino, the chief executive of X, a powerhouse advertising executive who had been hired away from NBC about seven months earlier, pitched the agent on bringing the former CNN anchor’s new web-based show to the social media platform, citing its massive reach, political influence and connections with advertisers. Soon after, Mr. Lemon became one of the first high-profile names to sign onto Ms. Yaccarino’s plan to help save the company’s sagging advertising business with video and TV-like programming.

Elon Musk, who owns X, agreed to be Mr. Lemon’s first guest.

The interview was held at the Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas, which, Mr. Musk quickly pointed out to Mr. Lemon, was “about three times larger than the Pentagon.” The two men sat on white Eames-like swivel chairs, a small white table between them. Mr. Musk was in a black T-shirt, Mr. Lemon in a white spread-collar shirt and a dark blue sweater.

The interview started out awkwardly, with Mr. Musk acknowledging that he hadn’t really watched Mr. Lemon when he anchored a 9 p.m. show on CNN. (“I’ve seen a few segments.”) It grew increasingly contentious over the next hour, and Mr. Musk became visibly frustrated with questions about his politics and drug use. “It’s pretty private,” Mr. Musk said when Mr. Lemon asked him about his prescription for ketamine, which Mr. Musk had posted about on X in 2023.

Mr. Lemon brought up complaints of sexual harassment at Tesla and SpaceX, both run by Mr. Musk, then asked if he had advantages in society as a white man. Mr. Musk raised an eyebrow. “You keep putting words in my mouth,” he objected. And when Mr. Lemon asked about the advertiser exodus from X, Mr. Musk shook his head: “Don, I have to say, choose your questions carefully. There’s five minutes left.” As the interview ended, Mr. Musk shot up from his chair, offering an abrupt handshake to the anchor.

The next day, he texted Mr. Lemon’s agent: “Contract canceled.”

A day after Mr. Musk called off the deal, Ms. Yaccarino called Mr. Lemon to find out what went wrong. She seemed confident she could patch things up between him and her boss. But Mr. Musk remained firm; Mr. Lemon had to be dismissed. The deal died — and with it, yet another attempt by Ms. Yaccarino to chart a profitable course for the troubled site.

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The 10 Most Popular Coding Challenge Websites [Updated for 2021]

A great way to improve your skills when learning to code is by solving coding challenges. Solving different types of challenges and puzzles can help you become a better problem solver, learn the intricacies of a programming language, prepare for job interviews, learn new algorithms, and more.

Below is a list of some popular coding challenge websites with a short description of what each one offers.

1. TopCoder

TopCoder is one of the original platforms for competitive programming online. It provides a list of algorithmic challenges from the past that you can complete on your own directly online using their code editor. Their popular Single Round Matches are offered a few times per month at a specific time where you compete against others to solve challenges the fastest with the best score.

The top ranked users on TopCoder are very good competitive programmers and regularly compete in programming competitions. The top ranked user maintains his own blog titled Algorithms weekly by Petr Mitrichev where he writes about coding competitions, algorithms, math, and more.

2. Coderbyte

Coderbyte provides 200+ coding challenges you can solve directly online in one of 10 programming languages (check out this example ). The challenges range from easy (finding the largest word in a string) to hard (print the maximum cardinality matching of a graph).

They also provide a collection of algorithm tutorials , introductory videos, and interview preparation courses . Unlike HackerRank and other similar websites, you are able to view the solutions other users provide for any challenge aside from the official solutions posted by Coderbyte.

3. Project Euler

Project Euler provides a large collection of challenges in the domain of computer science and mathematics. The challenges typically involve writing a small program to figure out the solution to a clever mathematical formula or equation, such as finding the sum of digits of all numbers preceding each number in a series.

You cannot directly code on the website in an editor, so you would need to write a solution on your own computer and then provide the solution on their website.

4. HackerRank

HackerRank provides challenges for several different domains such as Algorithms, Mathematics, SQL, Functional Programming, AI, and more. You can solve all the challenge directly online (check out this example ).

They provide a discussion and leaderboard for every challenge, and most challenges come with an editorial that explains more about the challenge and how to approach it to come up with a solution.

Currently, if you don't solve the problem, then you can't see the solution of others. If you also try to check the editorial before solving the problem, then you won't get the point for solving the problem at all.

As an example, here I haven't solved the problem, and I am trying to check others' submissions:

And here, I haven't solved the problem, and I am trying to check the editorial:

HackerRank also provides the ability for users to submit applications and apply to jobs by solving company-sponsored coding challenges.

5. CodeChef

CodeChef is an Indian-based competitive programming website that provides hundreds of challenges. You are able to write code in their online editor and view a collections of challenges that are separated into different categories depending on your skill level (check out this example ). They have a large community of coders that contribute to the forums, write tutorials , and take part in CodeChef’s coding competitions .

6. Exercism.io

Exercism is a coding challenge website that offers 3100+ challenges spanning 52 different programming languages. After picking a language that you'd like to master, you tackle the coding challenges right on your machine (Exercism has their own command line interface that you can download from GitHub).

It is a bit different from other challenge websites, however, because you work with a mentor after completing each challenge. The mentor reviews your answers online and helps you improve them if needed. Once your answers have been approved and submitted, you unlock more challenges.

7. Codewars

Codewars provides a large collection of coding challenges submitted and edited by their own community. You can solve the challenges directly online in their editor in one of several languages. You can view a discussion for each challenges as well as user solutions.

8. LeetCode

LeetCode is a popular Online Judge that provides a list of 190+ challenges that can help you prepare for technical job interviews. You can solve the challenges directly online in one of 9 programming languages. You are not able to view other users' solutions, but you are provided statistics for your own solutions such as how fast your code ran when compared to other users' code.

They also have a Mock Interview section that is specifically for job interview preparation, they host their own coding contests , and they have a section for articles to help you better understand certain problems.

Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ) is an online judge that provides over 20k coding challenges. You are able to submit your code in an online editor . SPOJ also hosts their own contests and has an area for users to discuss coding challenges. They do not currently provide any official solutions or editorials like some other websites do, though.

10. CodinGame

CodinGame is a bit different from the other websites, because instead of simply solving coding challenges in an editor, you actually take part in writing the code for games that you play directly online. You can see a list of games currently offered here and an example of one here . The game comes with a problem description, test cases, and an editor where you can write your code in one of 20+ programming languages.

Although this website is different than typical competitive programming websites such as the ones mentioned above, it is still popular amongst programmers who enjoy solving challenges and taking part in contests.

This list was based on a few things: my own experiences using the websites, some Google searches , Quora posts , and articles such as this one and this one . I also frequented some forums and subreddits such as r/learnprogramming to see what websites were usually recommended by the users there. Disclaimer: I work at Coderbyte which is one of the websites mentioned above.

CEO & Founder at Coderbyte.

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