3 ms·

Given the description about "sampling from an infinite" something, it's likely this was intended as a variation on reservoir sampling. https://en.wikipedia.org

• owyn 2y ago
  Yes, I'm sure that's what they were looking for. I hadn't heard of it before but I improvised my way in that direction until the interview was over. :)
  • racional 2y ago
    The "guess my Easter egg" interview pattern. As if this what they do all day: ask each other fundamentally useless questions with no meaningful answer (that anyone would actually care about), and which you aren't expected to provide an actual working answer to, anyway. But which have a cute partial (shibboleth) answer embedded in them. Which if you manage to come up with (under interview time constraints and pressure) -- and most importantly: if you ignore the request to actually solve the problem as stated -- will tell the person asking "how you think".