History Main / IncomprehensibleEntranceExam

A hallmark of only the most extreme schools, employers and organizations, this trope may involve TrainingFromHell -- though it's just as likely to involve a nastily-complicated written examination, a series of bewildering errands, or just a TerribleIntervieweesMontage. Possibly utilized by the StealthMentor -- or the PointyHairedBoss.

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Arya attempts to join the [[MurderInc Faceless Men]] with the Braavosi coin she was way given back in Season 2, only to be turned away from the [[CreepyCathedral House of Black and White]]. She spends the rest of the day waiting on the steps, before giving up and throwing the coin into the canal. However, she is inexplicably rescued from a mugging by the same priest who turned her away, who then invites her inside. No explanation for why she was refused, why she was accepted or even what the Faceless Men hoped to achieve by making her wait is ever given. [[note]]In the books, they just let her in when she first arrives[[/note]]
* ''Series/KamenRiderGotchard'': For Hotaro to enter the Alchemist Academy, he must somehow make the weights of two Chemies be equal through alchemy. But since Hotaro ''doesn't'' know alchemy, he decides to simply ask the two Chemies to change their diets.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}} Expanded Universe'', the Assassins' Guild local office in [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]] is running a selection course for talented local prospects who can be offered sponsored places at the Guild School in Ankh-Morpork. One of the final group, who have already been put through more conventional selection tests, is baffled when after a tangential discussion which was only marginally related to being an Assassin, the woman heading the selection panel offers him a saxophone and instructs him to play it. Afterwards, he realizes they already knew he was a competent musician; what swings it for his application is that his interviewer wanted to send the Guild School somebody with musical rather than assassin potential, as a favour to the Music teacher she quite likes.

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Cobb interviews Ariadne for the role of team architect entirely without warning and without actually telling her what the job is, reasoning that he has to know she can actually do it before he can give her the details. Over the course of the impromptu test, he challenges her to draw a maze in one minute that he can't solve in one minute. She gets it right on the third try.

* Tests that feel like this are one of the greatest problems in (and with) standardized testing. Questions that are meant to test reading comprehension, in particular, may include unspoken assumptions from the test writer's background. Those assumptions may be dated (assuming students know the difference between AM and FM radio), localized (assuming milk is sold in cardboard cartons in every country), parochial (assuming everyone knows the religious significance of Good Friday), or bigoted (assuming that a person with a wife must be male). The end result is students from differing backgrounds being unable to answer the questions despite having the reading comprehension skills expected. This led to things such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitling_Test Chitling Test]] which attempted to point it out.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/HustleCat'', when Avery applies to work at the cat cafe, Graves interviews them by giving a series of ridiculous questions such as 'If you were a genre of music, what would you be?' Avery is understandably nonplussed, but answers as seriously as they're able to, and ultimately is allowed to join.
[[/folder]]

* ''Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail'' has a "registration" of more than a hundred questions, many of which pertain to llamas and women's underwear. [[spoiler:It's also a ChekhovsGun for the Bridge scene, with your answers taking the place of the Bridgekeeper's "these questions three."]]

Compare InitiationCeremony, which can be just as bewildering but is generally more ritualistic in nature and less based on determining individual merit. Contrast SurprisinglyMundaneExam and UltimateFinalExam.

** After several seasons being a Commander due to her position as ship's counselor, Troi decides to take the bridge officer's test to qualify for an actual command rank. Much like Starfleet Academy's infamous [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation ''Kobiyashi Maru'']] exam, this was also a psychological test; in this case, they were testing [[spoiler:Troi's willingness to send a colleague to their death to save the rest of the ship]].

* The Discworld novel ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' has an exaggerated version of the Imperial Examination system for nearly everyone in the Agatean Empire, not just bureaucrats -- making it very much a version of the dysfunctional kind. Rincewind observes that one examinee's test for the post of night soil operative has zero questions on whether he knows how to use a shovel, and Lord Hong himself briefly considers that their cannons might not explode so often if they started rating metalworkers on their handiwork instead of their poetry.

* Jim Crow Era literacy exams that were designed to disqualify the newly enfranchised African-Americans and immigrants from voting were intentionally worded to have multiple possible "correct" answers, in other words, no what what you say, it will be marked as wrong.

* ''Literature/ThePiloFamilyCircus'' subjects Jamie to this very early in the novel. Having accidentally managed to amuse [[MonsterClown the Circus clown division]] while they were vandalizing his home, he's told he has three days to pass his audition: he has to make them laugh - no matter who gets hurt or killed as a result. Other than that, there's no explanations, no opportunity to back out, and no way of knowing if the clowns are being serious or just fucking with him again. For good measure, the clown division spends the next few days stalking Jamie, leaving menacing letters, torturing his friends, threatening to blow up his workplace and even making it look like they murdered one of his flatmates. [[spoiler: The goal is to scare Jamie into a FreakOut so as to see how funny he can be when he stops caring about social conventions. In the end, he passes the audition by creating a fake bomb scare with the aid of fireworks, then sprinting naked through a shopping center with a pillowcase over his head and a swastika painted on his chest.]]

** The sequel, ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' features a settlement by the name of Covenant, that has a test identical to the GOAT called the SAFE Test for entry. The purpose is to filter out Synths created by the [[BigBad Institute.]] [[spoiler: A side quest reveals that Covenant isn’t as it seems, with the whole place being designed to identify and capture synths for interrogation in a near by compound. The one who is responsible admits that the SAFE test isn’t perfect as the only way to know for sure that a person is or isn’t a synth is the presence of an implant in their brain, meaning that many innocent wastelanders may have met their unfortunate end here.]]

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Arya attempts to join the [[MurderInc Faceless Men]] with the Braavosi coin she was way given back in season 2, only to be turned away from the [[CreepyCathedral House of Black and White]]. She spends the rest of the day waiting on the steps, before giving up and throwing the coin into the canal. However, she is inexplicably rescued from a mugging by the same priest who turned her away, who then invites her inside. No explanation for why she was refused, why she was accepted or even what the Faceless Men hoped to achieve by making her wait is ever given. [[note]]In the books, they just let her in when she first arrives[[/note]]

* Taken UpToEleven and {{Deconstructed}} in ''WebVideo/DanganronpaDespairTime''. Min Jeung earned her title as the Ultimate Student by passing a special exam that was announced ''twelve years'' before it was held, with a coveted spot at the famous academy as the prize. However, she later began questioning her success, realizing that the school might not have been looking for the best or brightest, but for those willing to devote ''their whole childhood'' to studying for a single test. Min's family was also approached by a MysteriousBenefactor who offered to sponsor them and cover many of their expenses, contingent upon her taking the exam once the time came.

* Many tech companies such as Microsoft tested applicants with lateral-thinking puzzles during job interviews, such as the infamous "three lights in a box" problem. These questions are intended to help expose the applicant's logical thinking and problem-solving approach, but more often it comes down to whether you can derive the specific answer the interviewer is looking for (or already know it from another source) by using certain unspoken assumptions.

Compare InitiationCeremony, which can be just as bewildering but is generally more ritualistic in nature and less based on determining individual merit. Contrast UltimateFinalExam.

** The sequel, ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' features a settlement by the name of Covenant, that has a test identical to the GOAT called the SAFE Test for entry. The purpose is to filter out Synths created by the [[BigBad Institute.]] [[spoiler: A side quest reveals that Covenant isn’t as it seems, with the whole place being designed to identify and capture synths for interrogation in a near by compound. The one who is responsible admits that the SAFE test isn’t perfect as the only way to know for sure that a person is or isn’t a synth is the presence of an implant in their brain, meaning that many innocent wasteland era may have met their unfortunate end here.]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': UA's entrance exam consists of smashing two different types of robots in a simulated city, while avoiding the HumongousMecha one. However, there is a secret second point system for grading character and superhero-like conduct, like taking on the mech anyways, or helping other applicants out. It is acknowledged in-universe to be unfair to students whose quirks aren't well suited for combat (especially against robots), notably with Hitoshi Shinso's brain washing quirk which itself only works on people, but is noted to be a useful quirk with a lot of potential.

* Many tech companies currently tests applicants with coding problems during online assessments and job interviews, such as the problems that Leetcode[[note]]a technical interview prep site[[/note]] considers to be "hard" on their scale. These questions are intended to help expose the applicant's thought process, but more often it comes down to whether they can derive the specific answer the interviewer is looking for and pass the corresponding test cases.

* Many tech companies have followed Microsoft's lead and adopted the practice of testing applicants with lateral-thinking puzzles during job interviews, such as the infamous "three lights in a box" problem. These questions are intended to help expose the applicant's logical thinking and problem-solving approach, but more often it comes down to whether you can derive the specific answer the interviewer is looking for (or already know it from another source) by using certain unspoken assumptions.

* Some clans in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' prefer to test their potential members before Embracing them, and given the need to uphold the {{Masquerade}}, few candidates ever realize that they're being tested at all until they become vampires - and even if they ''do'' become aware of being part of a test, it's not uncommon for them to be tricked into believing that they failed. Two such clans, the [[LivingShadow Lasombra]] and the [[TheCorrupter Followers of Set]], often go out of their way to deliberately ruin a potential member's life in any way they can - sabotaging their careers, undermining their relationships, crushing their hopes, even leading them into addiction - but for different reasons: the Lasombra are determined to Embrace only the strongest, and the tests are designed [[TheSocialDarwinist to weed out any who cannot withstand hardship]]; by contrast, the Setites want to [[BreakTheHaughty completely break]] their "students" and show them the true nature of the universe.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' Expanded Universe, the Assassins' Guild local office in [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]] is running a selection course for talented local prospects who can be offered sponsored places at the Guild School in Ankh-Morpork. One of the final group, who have already been put through more conventional selection tests, is baffled when after a tangential discussion which was only marginally related to being an Assassin, the woman heading the selection panel offers him a saxophone and instructs him to play it. Afterwards, he realises they already knew he was a competent musician; what swings it for his application is that his interviewer wanted to send the Guild School somebody with musical rather than assassin potential, as a favour to the Music teacher she quite likes.

* Parodied in the ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'' film adaptation: the interview process for one IncompetenceInc involves ever more surreal and nonsensical questions, asked by a hostile stenographer who doesn't even bother to wait for answers, until the Postal Dude [[RageBreakingPoint snaps]] entirely. His outburst gets him to the top of the list.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': UA's entrance exam consists of smashing two different types of robots in a simulated city, while avoiding the HumongousMecha one. However, there is a secret second point system for grading character and superhero-like conduct, like taking on the mech anyways, or helping other applicants out. It is acknowledged in-universe to be unfair to students who aren't well-suited to smashing robots or supporting others, such a mind-controller with heroic inclinations whose powers don't work on robots.

* Parodied in the ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'' film adaptation: the interview process for one IncompetenceInc involves ever more surreal and nonsensical questions, asked by a hostile stenographer who doesn't even bother to wait for answers, until the Postal Guy [[RageBreakingPoint snaps]] entirely. His outburst gets him to the top of the list.

'''Postal Guy:''' ...and? ''[{{Beat}}]'' What the hell is ''wrong'' with you people?! A ''duck?!'' I came here for a ''job!''

* The Silly Job Interview sketch of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus,'' which features the unfortunate applicant being put through a baffling series of instructions and queries with no rhyme or reason, in keeping with the show's absurdist sense of humor.

* In ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'', the second test the kids take to join the titular society is full of dense, long-winded questions about subjects like the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Reynie passes the test when he realizes it's really about reading comprehension and following instructions -- the answer to each question is found somewhere in a different question.

* Tests that feel like this are one of the greatest problems in (and with) standardized testing. Questions that are meant to test reading comprehension, in particular, may include unspoken assumptions from the test writer's background. Those assumptions may be dated (assuming students know the difference between AM and FM radio), localized (assuming milk is sold in cardboard cartons in every country), parochial (assuming everyone knows the religious significance of Good Friday), or bigoted (assuming that a person with a wife must be male). The end result is students from differing backgrounds being unable to answer the questions despite having the reading comprehension skills expected. This led to things such as the "Chitlen's test" which attempted to point it out.

* The eponymous ''Film/MenInBlack'' draws in applicants from the very best in the military and police for a series of exams -- without ever telling them what exactly the test will be like. It starts with [[CringeComedy an incredibly awkward written exam]] in inconvenient egg-shaped chairs with no desks. After that, the applicants are pitted against a variety of menacing-looking aliens in a shooting range. The entire class flunks out and has their memory of the incident erased -- except for NYPD officer James Edwards, the future J. It's implied that the purpose of the tests was to find someone who uses common sense and initiative; the egg-shaped chairs are in a large room with a single table in the middle, and J was the only one who thought to drag it over to his chair to overcome the deskless egg-shaped chair problem, even though doing so caused a huge racket. He passes a test of perception and discretion in the alien shooting gallery, as the one little girl target he ended up shooting was holding an advanced physics book and the said aliens were actually in middle of harmless activities, such as exercising or about to sneeze. They were looking for someone who can independently deduce and can take the initiative, not someone who follows orders blindly. He gets bonus points for being the only applicant to think it's peculiar (and to him amusing) that none of the applicants know what exactly is going on.