[fennecfoxen]

Any answer that gets the job done works. Looping through the mines in one pass with appropriate adjustment of probability (never seen it). Pick random spot and retry. Take all coordinates, shuffle, take N. Something I've never heard of? Sure, if you apply it and it works.

The preconception is that someone who isn't capable of coming up with a way to distributing X values into a data structure representing a M*N playing field isn't worth hiring. It's a stupidly simple task, light on the algorithms (much like the day-to-day programming tasks) and heavier on the "come up with something coherent and quasi-organized to accomplish a very simple goal" in a program.

As for the rules of Minesweeper, if you're rusty, I have a printout. :b