[throwaway9475]

They ask you to reverse a linked list then politely ask if you have any questions when you don't do it to their liking.

[cheeze]

If you can't study to reverse a linked list efficiently... You're gonna have a bad time...

I ask 'reverse a linked list' when the interview is going so poorly that there is no chance the candidate will be able to answer my 'normal' questions.

[pavement]

Funny, because whenever I get asked questions like that, I just start nesting for loops to an arbitrary depth, until that trolls my way out of the interview.

Then I wrap the outer-most closure in an exception that swallows the error, and bid good afternoon.

[joeletizia]

I think that's kind of the point.

If you have to study for an interview, the interview is most likely not representative of real work one would find on the job.

Let's face it. "Big Co" interviewing is about passing an arbitrary bar that they have set. It's not representative of the actual work post hire.