Elon Musk asks this question at every interview to spot a liar: 'Tell me about...'

Elon Musk said he looks for 'evidence of exceptional ability' when it comes to hiring.

Elon Musk says that some of the top traits he looks for in prospective employees are not their education. “There’s no need even to have a college degree at all, or even high school,” the Tesla and Twitter CEO said during a 2014 interview. Instead, what the tech billionaire does look for is “evidence of exceptional ability” when it comes to hiring. “If there’s a track record of exceptional achievement, then it’s likely that that will continue into the future,” he said.

In fact, Musk even devised a way to gauge if candidates are sincere and honest about their achievements -- he would ask them only one question: “Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.”

“The people who really solved the problem know exactly how they solved it. They know and can describe the little details,” Elon Musk said at the World Government Summit in 2017.

“And of course you want to make sure if there was some significant accomplishment, were they really responsible, or was someone else more responsible? Usually, someone who really had to struggle with a problem, they really understand (the details), and they don’t forget.”

He explained that someone making a false claim will lack the ability to back it up convincingly, so he wants to hear them talk about how they worked through the problems, step by step.

In 2020, Musk asked "ace engineers" to apply for work at "Gigafactory Berlin," and it's the same question he shared while inviting applications.

When sending your resume, please describe a few of the hardest problems you solved & exactly how you solved them

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2020

Gigafactory Berlin is Tesla's European battery manufacturing plant in Germany.

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