To be clear, I don't ask them to write a linked list class. I would typically be asking them how they would implement a function that takes a linked list and ha

To be clear, I don't ask them to write a linked list class. I would typically be asking them how they would implement a function that takes a linked list and has to do something with it. A lot depends on who I'm interviewing and what I'm looking for for that role. I don't think there's a one size fits all interview question for programming jobs. In the above example I might only want them to explain how they would solve it to see their problem solving abilities. In other cases I might want to see some whiteboard quality code and we can segue into other topics like debugging or testing the code they wrote. Your example probably wouldn't be suitable for an entry level candidate who I would expect would need more guidance for things like class or interface design but I'd expect to be able to implement functions given an API.