[dbcurtis]

> I never seem to find a quick good answer for this.

So do what polititions do -- answer the question you wished they had asked instead of what they actually asked.

In my case, at most places I've worked I end up being one of the go-to people for gnarly bugs that have stumped the regular crew. So part of my interview prep is to condense a war story into something short and coherent that illustrates why people should have faith in my intuition, a bit of a tough sell. Then during the interview I latch onto any semi-related question and tell my rehearsed story.

[user5994461]

Also, politicians recycle answers from other people.

-- like the story of when you saved 187 million dollars by fixing a totally trivial bug https://thehftguy.com/2017/04/04/the-187-million-dollars-gma...

[koolba]

Bingo.

"Well I'm not sure I can pick just one as the "hardest", but one very interesting problem that ended with an elegant solution was ..."

And you fill in the ... with a tale of you slaying a dragon^W prod issue with just your wits and a default .vimrc.

[ruleabidinguser]

I don't know why this has to be framed as a manipulative 'politicians' move, this is just being honest and helpful like you ought to be.