> but the question here was where it does point to. No, the question was "what happens here" and the obvious answer is "you write 'a' to an undefined location,

> but the question here was where it does point to. No, the question was "what happens here" and the obvious answer is "you write 'a' to an undefined location, likely segfaulting". Since the candidate failed to spot this a hint was given hoping that the candidate would realize that the pointer didn't point at a valid location.