[mcherm]

If I were running this as an interview question I would do exactly that -- give them 5 minutes to think then 5-10 minutes to describe their plan.

But THEN, I'd let them actually try to DO it. Because there is a huge swatch of people out there who can describe (and sound smooth about it) but can't DO. And there are also some who can do but don't sound very competent when they are asked to describe.

Many interview techniques never assess the ability to DO coding, presumably because it is more difficult and time consuming to evaluate.