If I'm an employer and you are working for me, I am asking you to solve a problem because there is some value in the result. If I'm interviewing you, chances a

If I'm an employer and you are working for me, I am asking you to solve a problem because there is some value in the result. If I'm interviewing you, chances are, the result has no intrinsic value - I already (hopefully) know it. What I want to know is "Can you solve other similarly difficult problems?" In this context, being able to come up with a solution to the problem isn't as useful in answering that as knowing how you solved it.