Typically candidates are scored on a scale. And there are multiple interviews. The final hire / no-hire is decided based on the scores and written feedback from all interviews.
My mid-mark would be where someone could write the code for the brute-force answer for both parts but couldn't get the memoize / dynamic-programming solution. That would be where I'd say "I'm not sure, look at other interviews". Otherwise I'll make a hire / no-hire recommendation.
Interesting. Thanks for the honest answer. (For the record, I'd do fine with brute-forcing both parts but would struggle with memoization in an interview context).
Depends on role and level as well. SRE or junior SWE might get a “hire” for that but a senior SWE probably would go back to the other interviews as mentioned above.
Realistically, what are the chances of someone who solved everything up to the half-way point?