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If your question has that "gotcha there is just one right answer"-feel to it, you are doing it wrong.

I had a teacher once who constantly asked questions like these in such an imprecise fashion there was no way anybody could have guessed how the question was even meant to be answered. I still cringe when I think about it, because the only purpose of these questions was to show us that he is really clever and we don't know shit — and it didn't work at all.



Yes, absolutely.

Personally, I have always approached interviews as an opportunity to either teach or learn. I pick a subject and drill down until either the interviewee reaches their limit of knowledge, or I do. Why is it like that? How does that work?

Then, we have a discussion. One (or both) of us is learning and we work out the whys and hows together. If I'm the one learning, and I hope that I am, I fact check the discussion after the interview. If not, I get a strong indicator not just for the technical level of the candidate but also how they operate at the edge of their comfort zone. I've found this can be a strong predictor of future growth.




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