It depends on the committee. I am more looking into how a candidate thinks than if they get the problem correct. It is more telling when someone is able to lo

It depends on the committee. I am more looking into how a candidate thinks than if they get the problem correct. It is more telling when someone is able to logically work through a problem they never seen before even if it isn't optimal or even correct. I am more skeptical of those who blow through a hard problem getting the optimal solution right away. It likely means they memorized it or had lots of practice on such type of problems. I don't hold it against them, but often have to throw in some curve ball follow ups to see if they really know there stuff.