[watwut]

That sounds good, really. It is better then asking about breadth/depth first search. Added bonus is that potential employee gets some idea about what he will do daily too before making decision.

Another way to screw hiring is to select for algorithms loving geek who seeks algorithmic challenge and can recite obscure edge cases - and then put him on position where he has to solve normal business problems or maintain unit tests because that is what job is. And then wonder why genius is demotivated and does not seem to produce.

But, I still don't think either of these search questions is outrageous or a deal breaking question. It is within acceptable questions range - partly because it is so common that I would expect a person to quick google it if they heard it twice already and did not figured it out in stress of interview.