The question is just an example, the underlying subtle notion is that what can an entrepreneur cook up with limited resources? Of course, you can ask them an in

The question is just an example, the underlying subtle notion is that what can an entrepreneur cook up with limited resources? Of course, you can ask them an intelligent question in any variety of ways - you can ask Jobs what can Apple design that solves audio learning problems in the third world for less than 20$ or so? Can Steve Jobs answer that question? Yes. Can he (or Apple rather) build it? Yes (well, in an interview you would ask a question that requires quite a bit of insight, not puzzles) "This sounds like one of those textbook/puzzle questions which sound very clever but don't stand up to any rigorous analysis( imo)." Again, it was an example. One could very well ask someone an on-the-spot question that would arise in a typical startup situation. Answering the question "well" - if you are basing a hire's success just on the outcome of a question, then you may have some serious issues with measuring success.