Most interview questions are ridiculous and don’t test for the knowledge a candidate should have. When I interview, I ask a system design problem that involves using an inverted index, a bst, understanding how to normalize data, and then being a little clever when merging some data. It tests fundamental concepts in the context of building a working solution to a meaningful problem.
I never understood why anyone would ask say DP questions in an interview. We don’t use that in 99.9% of software (I’ve never once in my career found a use case). What you’re really testing is whether or not the candidate had enough time to refresh that material. Worse still, it involves a very rigid solution pattern that’s over-specified to that class of problem and tells you nothing about what you want to know: can a candidate synthesize concepts to devise a solution to problems we actually encounter?
I never understood why anyone would ask say DP questions in an interview. We don’t use that in 99.9% of software (I’ve never once in my career found a use case). What you’re really testing is whether or not the candidate had enough time to refresh that material. Worse still, it involves a very rigid solution pattern that’s over-specified to that class of problem and tells you nothing about what you want to know: can a candidate synthesize concepts to devise a solution to problems we actually encounter?