In real life you usually know at least 1 or 2 of these:
- what the problem is
- what you want to achieve
- what the constraints are
- what works (a means to know when you have found a solution)
Without that, you have an undefined riddle and you can try to do something original or clever and see how that goes. Obviously the less you know the less convoluted things will even occur to you.
If you give a bunch of numbers to mathy people they will very likely try some math. They will expect it to be math. That's not loss of creativity, that's reasonable expectations.
In real life, if I'm given a pizza and told to divide it in 11 equal slices I'm pretty sure I can achieve reasonable precision without any measurements. 1/11 is just slightly more than 1/(4*3) which is easy enough to figure out. At most I'd make a few tentative marks before going ahead and cutting it. When you give a problem like this in an interview, you can assume you're expected to prove your relevant skills to the job. In a software company that would be math, algorithms, etc. not just problem solving. If your objective is to get upvoted, then maybe you should try something clever and accessible.
- what the problem is
- what you want to achieve
- what the constraints are
- what works (a means to know when you have found a solution)
Without that, you have an undefined riddle and you can try to do something original or clever and see how that goes. Obviously the less you know the less convoluted things will even occur to you.
If you give a bunch of numbers to mathy people they will very likely try some math. They will expect it to be math. That's not loss of creativity, that's reasonable expectations.
In real life, if I'm given a pizza and told to divide it in 11 equal slices I'm pretty sure I can achieve reasonable precision without any measurements. 1/11 is just slightly more than 1/(4*3) which is easy enough to figure out. At most I'd make a few tentative marks before going ahead and cutting it. When you give a problem like this in an interview, you can assume you're expected to prove your relevant skills to the job. In a software company that would be math, algorithms, etc. not just problem solving. If your objective is to get upvoted, then maybe you should try something clever and accessible.