Are you smart enough to work at Google? Fiendishly difficult questions from the world's toughest job interviews

The world’s jobs market is hyper-competitive. In Britain alone, with 2.67million unemployed, there are six people for every vacancy.

So it’s no surprise that the most sought-after firms are going to extraordinary lengths to find the right staff – by posing fiendishly ­challenging conundrums to sort the creative thinking wheat from the ­unimaginative chaff.

The big firms don’t just want the best qualified and most intelligent, they want the most innovative too.

The Bank of America has asked candidates: “If you were a cartoon character, which one would you be and why?” And healthcare giant Johnson and Johnson questioned: “What colour best represents your personality?”

Google founder Larry Page revealed: “We do go out of our way to recruit people who are a little different.”

Now writer William Goldstone has compiled many of the mind-bending questions – and the often surprising answers – in new book, Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google?