An advantage of coding interviews: some people just can't help themselves... To never lose at TicTacToe is not possible. If you're trying to never lose, you do

An advantage of coding interviews: some people just can't help themselves... To never lose at TicTacToe is not possible. If you're trying to never lose, you don't want minimax, you want a brute force of the search space Seems like space is 2^9, but actually a few if statements is enough. You said I must never lose?? Okay I take the center (corner has same outcome, but center simplifies) You now have 2 choices: corner, or side. Internally I will rotate the board so your choice was square 0 or 1 012 3x5 678 If you chose square 1, I just need 2 if statements play(0) if(yourplay()!=8) return play(8) play(3) if(yourplay()!=5) return play(5) return play(6) If you chose square 0, ... it is left as an exercise for the examiner