[dbdr]

This is under this hypothesis: "the interviewer does not learn the actual relative rank of each applicant. He learns only whether the applicant has relative rank 1." I think this is rarely a reasonable hypothesis. Kepler certainly could tell how much he liked each woman, not just whether she was the best so far or not.

Under the (reasonable) hypothesis that you get some information about the relative value of each candidate, I believe spacehome is correct and the optimal strategies ARE different.