Best option

[ja5730]

What option would save you the most money on, given 50 cents with 60% accuracy or 30 cents with 40% accuracy, what would be the best option.

 

[JeffM]

Care to explain further what you mean by “accuracy.” Are you talking probabilities?

 

[ja5730]

Yes, taking probability. I'm studying case interview questions and this one didn't make much sense to me.

 

[JeffM]

That is because it does not make ANY sense.

The expected value of a 60% probability of 50 cents and a 40% probability of nothing is 30 cents. The expected value of a 40% probability of 30 cents and a 60% probability of nothing is 12 cents. But I have no clue what was intended by this question. It probably was made up by an HR person, who are usually the stupidest people in any company except for a small minority of the maintenance crew and security guards.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

It probably was made up by an HR person, who are usually the stupidest people in any company except for a small minority of the maintenance crew and security guards.

Getting feisty here.

HR people are nice - I hope they do a good job at maintaining their pencils sharp ...

I don't want to speak evil of them - my pension might get cut into half. And it will be all your fault!!

Now maintenance people have to be smart - they have to change light bulbs. You know PhD engineers could not do that.

 

[ja5730]

Thanks for the replies guys, as long as I know I'm not the only one that thought this question was odd. lol