If the interviewer is willing to talk it out with you, then it is totally a different situation. But, it came up in a recent other HN discussion on tech interv

If the interviewer is willing to talk it out with you, then it is totally a different situation. But, it came up in a recent other HN discussion on tech interviews, and it is an example of something that, if you memorized it, would have a vanishingly small improvement in your ability to get the job done. But, if you explain what it is in words, and have them whiteboard how to turn those words into pseudocode or somesuch, then it could be a appropriate, sure.