[sriram_malhar]

> That's not asking directly. It's vague. It's ambiguous. It's lazy. It's a cover for not having taken the time to prepare for the meeting (read: interview).

I beg to differ. I think the more ambiguous the question to start with, the wider the field of possible followups. Perhaps project Y is something that the candidate is more excited about than project X, and maybe had a bigger role in.

I believe that, in a friendly setting, one can pick up a lot of information about the candidate's ability to work with ambiguity, from the clarity with which they have organized their thoughts, the concision with which they have presented it, their humility about their contribution, about the things that excited them. Or lack thereof. The interviewer need not be familiar with the details of that project to pick up on this.