>My mindset wasn't that they really cared that I could do these obscure programming exercises that I hadn't used once in 20+ years of real-world programming, bu

>My mindset wasn't that they really cared that I could do these obscure programming exercises that I hadn't used once in 20+ years of real-world programming, but rather that I could prove that I could learn and adapt. This is how bad interviewers always justify asking nonsensical questions. It's like that old joke: An interviewer picks up a stack of 50 resumes, takes a glance at them and drops the bottom half into a wastebasket. A coworker asks: 'Why did you discard those candidates?' The interviewer replies: 'Because I hate losers.'