[timr]

"Reversing a linked list is not an Alan-Turing-level problem."

I'm not suggesting that it is. The problem is, people are asking much harder questions -- questions that require "aha" brilliance -- and using it as a proxy for intelligence. That's stupid.

Hell...it's not even a deal-breaker if someone has to struggle a little to work out the algorithm for reversing a list, so long as they get it right. The problem is that if you spend more than 5 minutes (or whatever) doing it, 99% of nerds are going to flip the idiot bit on you, and it's time for "Do You Have Any Questions For Me?"

Once you've set up the game such that a candidate has to memorize the answer to "easy" questions to perform, there's no end to the regurgitation that could be required. Before long, people are committing obscure algorithms to memory, because "someone might ask", and they don't want to appear to be stupid. It's a waste of time and energy for everyone involved.

[gjm11]

Well, FWIW, when I've asked people "write me code to reverse a list", I've simply assumed that unless the candidate is a real superstar it'll probably take them a while to get to a working solution, and I'm happy to give them some help along the way. I completely agree that an interviewer who expects a correct solution within a few minutes (even to a relatively simple problem like that one) is being dumb and helping to make the world a worse place.

As for "aha! brilliance", the trouble with that is that the variance is so large; someone very good may well take a while, and someone not so good may well happen to get there quickly.