[the_af]

> You'll never be in this situation

The article indicates the opposite: this is a real situation (it's explained why they are asking) and like Zach Holman states (somewhat exaggerated, true): unless your software has no users and is only one hour old, you'll find yourself in this situation.

[phendrenad2]

No, the article doesn't reveal anything about where this data comes from, other than the vague "user input vs database" which is useless.

So their problem is real-world, and has a solution. We're supposed to solve the problem without the benefit of the context that they have, which makes it a contrived academic problem, which was my point.