Tue, 2 Jul 2013Many a jobseeker will know the frustration of getting through to a job interview only to be stumped by a tricky question – but the Royal Australian Air Force have managed to put an impossible one at the very start of its hiring process.

The website defencejobs.gov.au includes complex formula with jobseekers needing to solve it to obtain the telephone number to ring if they are interested in an engineering career with the Air Force.

However, as website au.businessinsider.com reports, the original version of the formula didn’t work as it should. The problem was that sin2x was published rather than sin(2x), while (2k-1)! was used rather than (2k+1)!, as Business Insider illustrates.

The website has been told that the challenge, an example of gamification in recruitment, was meant to be a means of driving engagement and not a formal test.

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