[he11ow]

It's been a long long time since I've interviewed for a developer job, and unless anything wildly radical happens, unlikely to happen ever again. BUT... At the time I recall that what worked very well was that I'd start with the knucklehead solution. I'd say, "Well, a naive way of doing this would be..." and what this does is buys a bit more time of thinking as you talk through the facile way of doing things. That alone is not going to be enough to pass this kind of interview, but I remember this as a useful trick.

[ZhL]

Yes, starting with a brute force solution is a good advise. That paid off for me a couple of times. I need to keep reminding that myself - sometimes I get carried away trying to jump straight ahead to something more optimal.