[ALittleLight]

I don't read any humor in it at all. What's supposed to be funny about it?

I can imagine someone wanting to hire an engineer more talented than they are and so asking questions that they themselves wouldn't be able to answer. That just seems logical rather than ironic.

I feel like it would bias your selection towards a fast moving hacker rather than a more methodical person, but that may be exactly what you're looking for in this context.

[tom_mellior]

The author isn't just saying that they themselves couldn't write a Tic-Tac-Toe simulator the first time they were exposed to the problem. The author is saying that after watching candidates work this problem "for years", apparently not even a high level algorithmic idea stuck with them. This is... surprising.