[BoorishBears]

Every example you listed would be dodging an enormous bullet.

The exact example the grandparent used was essentially a wrong answer, so our "old-school interviewer" (that sounds kind of ageist doesn't it?) marking us down for not using it is a bad thing.

An interviewer who loves functional programming and doesn't communicate any preference then marks you down for not reading their mind is someone to avoid.

An interviewer who punishes you for asking questions is a huge red flag and you'll be dodging a huge bullet.

I'm a self-taught dev so I definitely have some thoughts on how tech interviewing goes, but an interview runs both ways. I'd much rather miss out on a job because the other person was racist or they hate when people ask questions, than to end up working with them.

[Avshalom]

"Sure I missed rent and now I have an eviction on my record and I'm sleeping in a car but at least I didn't get a job, bullet dodged"

[BoorishBears]

"Your advice doesn't work out in every single situation ever experienced by a human so I'm going to come up with a sarcastic comment that says nothing of value to point that out."

You'd think common sense would tell one not to define what's good for them in general based on what's good for you when they're "missing rent with an eviction and sleeping in your car".

[yCombLinks]

Not every person in the interview process is anywhere near you in the org though, sometimes great jobs are behind a shitty interview

[bdg]

Yes, and sometimes shitty jobs are behind great people. Candidates get catfished in interviews all the time.

[BoorishBears]

In my experience there are few great jobs behind shitty people. Great jobs tend to not put shitty people in the hiring loop.

Similar works backwards, if you're using the interview to also ask the right questions, good people are generally not going to lie to you...