There is no point. The point of interviews is to find engineers that can do the work. This question doesn't further that goal. It "works" because we've been tr

There is no point. The point of interviews is to find engineers that can do the work. This question doesn't further that goal. It "works" because we've been trained to laude pointless BS as if it were somehow valuable. The interviewers themselves had to answer some BS questions, therefore they perpetuate it. Candidates don't reject the questions because there's no quicker way to fail an interview than to balk at an unfair question. Ask yourself: Now that you know the answer, are you a better programmer? Truly? If becoming a better programmer were that simple, anyone off the street could do it.