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UPSC Interview's Bizarre Questions: '2 People, 5 Teas, Why Bill for Only 3?'
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News18•04-10-2026, 12:29
UPSC Interview's Bizarre Questions: '2 People, 5 Teas, Why Bill for Only 3?'
- •UPSC interviews test quick wit, mental balance, and decision-making under pressure, not just academic knowledge.
- •The board assesses personality depth with strange, bizarre, and tricky questions designed to test real-life experiences and common sense.
- •A male candidate was asked, 'If you wake up pregnant, what will you do?' to test composure in unexpected situations.
- •One question posed was, 'Two people drank five cups of tea, yet why was the bill only for three cups?'
- •Other questions included 'How would you see if an elephant is in one eye and a horse in the other?' and a classic time and work problem.
Key Questions Answered
The UPSC interview board uses strange or hypothetical questions not to test textbook memorization, but to evaluate a candidate's real-life experience, common sense, quick wit, mental balance, and presence of mind under pressure.
A smart candidate can logically deduce that a third person was present who did not drink tea, or that one of the people did not drink tea themselves and only provided company.
This classic question checks whether candidates listen carefully to the wording instead of blindly rushing to apply memorized mathematical formulas, since the correct answer is zero days because the wall is already built.
