It seems that a lot of developers simply don't know very simple basics that could be learned in a couple weeks of reading an intro algorithms book. Even without

It seems that a lot of developers simply don't know very simple basics that could be learned in a couple weeks of reading an intro algorithms book. Even without having studied databases, it should be within reason to think up that a database is a collection of records, and you need to find those records fast. Just like if you needed to find an object in an in-memory array quickly. Maybe it's being asked in a weird way? Or they have an expectation that you want them to describe exact DB internals? Any decent candidate should be able to have a conversation about this.