The "quiz for aspiring IT managers" asks: how do you cross a river full of crocodiles? What is the point of these trick questions?

You simply swim across — the crocodiles are away at the lion's annual animal conference; the quiz exposes the habit of overcomplicating simple problems.

The four questions and their "correct" answers:

1. How do you put a giraffe in a fridge? Open the fridge, put it in, close the door. (Tests whether you overcomplicate simple problems.)
2. How do you put an elephant in a fridge? Open the fridge, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in, close it. (Tests whether you consider the consequences of your previous actions.)
3. The Lion King holds his annual animal conference — every animal attends except one. Which is missing? The elephant — it is still stuck in the fridge. (Tests memory.)
4. You must cross a crocodile-infested river. How? Just swim — all the crocodiles are at the conference. (Tests whether, and how quickly, you learn from earlier mistakes.)

Why it matters:

• The joke punchline: a study (attributed to Andersen Consulting) claimed ~90% of tested IT managers got all questions wrong, while several preschoolers answered correctly
• The real teaching point is that adults default to complicated, "expert" reasoning and ignore the simple, connected answer right in front of them
• Lateral thinking starts with noticing when you are over-engineering a trivial problem

Tip: Each question builds on the previous one — the lesson is to carry context forward and resist the urge to invent complexity.