this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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You have three switches in one room and a single light bulb in another room. You are allowed to visit the room with the light bulb only once. How do you figure out which switch controls the bulb? Write your answer in the comments before looking at other answers.


Comment:

If this were an interview question, the correct response would be "Do you have any relevant questions for me? Because have a long list of things that more deserving of my precious time than to think about this!

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[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (11 children)

if the bulb is hot

if hot they're using out of date lighting, who the fuck uses incandescent bulbs this far into the 21st century? they have failed their interview with me.

[–] Dremor@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

LED do not have a 100% efficiency, and do produce waste heat. A lot less than an incandescence one, sure, but enough for that answer to be valid.
Well, maybe you'd better wait 10min instead of one, to make sure the led lightbulb heats enough, but still...

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

note the premise specifies HOT.

none of my LED bulbs get hot even after hours. they do warm up from 'cold' but HOT?

ymmv.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The "premise" is detecting that a now dark light was recently turned on by feeling for residual heat. "Hot" is a relative term.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

actually not really - hot specifies HOT; if it were room temp, warm, warmer than another that sat unused - sure. but you're only flipping it on for a short time. HOT?

it's pedantic, but parsing is important here because some HR shitwad decided these silly stupid games were a valid hiring method on filtering pedants apparently

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