In fact, it is pretty obvious that the developer's decision to write tests first is blinding him to the problem and seeing a solution. By whiplashing around tes

In fact, it is pretty obvious that the developer's decision to write tests first is blinding him to the problem and seeing a solution. By whiplashing around tests rather than taking time to just think about what you want, it takes an hour to write a simple solution to a warm-up question in a good technical interview. On the other hand, as a way to get around sticky conceptual barriers, perhaps this approach is great. One just wishes the barriers were set a bit higher. But perhaps the trick doesn't work as well there.