[justinpaulson]

The point of these type of interview questions is to see how well you can reason and communicate. It is not to see if you know how to solve that specific problem, and if an interviewer is using it like that then they are not a very good interviewer. A standardized test does not substitute for actually talking to someone while they solve a problem and seeing that they can think logically and communicate those thoughts.

It is more about the communication aspect of the question, not about getting to the answer. Because communication is a lot more important in business...even tech business...than you seem to think it is.

[maroonblazer]

Right. While I wasn't interviewing for a technical position, the interviewer asked me to 'vote off' one of the 50 U.S. states, and to describe my reasoning why (perhaps this is a common question but I hadn't encountered it before). It was basically an exercise in thinking out loud, with a lot of "well, I'd probably want to first consider x, but actually before doing that I'd want to take into account y...". There wasn't any undue pressure, since there was clearly no right answer, so it allowed me to just riff out loud on the problem, exposing to the interviewer how I approach problems.

I use this same technique now when interviewing others.

[thecage411]

The answer is florida, right?

[maroonblazer]

Idaho.