False-negative for sure. For highly specialized people, it's easy to forget trivial problems. They've just spent the last five or more years of their life honi

False-negative for sure. For highly specialized people, it's easy to forget trivial problems. They've just spent the last five or more years of their life honing their skills on a particular set of increasingly difficult problems. I'd be impressed if they could still scratch down a non-recursive fibonacci function off the top of their head. Most human beings cannot do that. As an interviewer it's easy to forget that you're the only one who is interested in simple functions like reversing strings or shuffling cards. You do so at your own risk. The people walking through your door are expecting to talk about what they're good at. Unless the technology world has progressed at such breakneck speed because we've been mulling over how to best reverse strings for the past thirty years, then it's no surprise that such a narrow test is practically useless for all but junior first-time programmers.