It doesn't sound like the author had to google for specific library methods (otherwise they wouldn't have had to think about the problem for a few minutes befor

It doesn't sound like the author had to google for specific library methods (otherwise they wouldn't have had to think about the problem for a few minutes beforehand). It sounds like they genuinely couldn't figure it out (even given those library functions). I don't think googling for library methods is a sign of a bad developer. On the contrary, googling for specific library functions instead of hacking something together using general library functions is a sign of a good developer. That said, at least for python, I personally wouldn't have to google. I use random.choices a few times a year.