> Why do programmers think asking if Oct 31 and Dec 25 are the same day is funny? I have no idea. Can I find the largest int in an array? Sure, but why in the w

> Why do programmers think asking if Oct 31 and Dec 25 are the same day is funny? I have no idea. Can I find the largest int in an array? Sure, but why in the world are you asking me this? The first question is silly. It's probably intended as a shibboleth, but it's a pretty useless one: people who can answer it probably understand what is octal/decimal/hex, but lots of people who do know octal/decimal/hex have never heard of that silly joke. The second question is very easy and it's good as a first filter: if you can't answer it then it's very very likely you cannot code. They're asking it because there are indeed people who interview for that position yet cannot answer it. > And FizzBuzz (linked in #1): yes I get it, it's easy and it filters out 199 out of 200 candidates, but what about those 199 other candidates? Is it not possible that among them, you might have missed other candidates whose broader set of experiences would have taught you something that you didn't know, something more important than the fact they failed FizzBuzz, for whatever inconsequential reasons? I think the 1/200 ratio is rather hyperbolic and not based on any actual data. In my experience interviewing candidates for a not very well-known company (so we didn't have 1000s of candidates for every position, more like dozens), more than 2/3 of the candidates would pass the really easy questions. But yes, if the candidate fails Fizzbuzz then it's probably pointless to continue the interview. Of course the candidate might have other skills, but we're talking about interviewing for a programmer position.