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I would argue that they're harmful even as interview questions. This sort of thing is never a good idea, so why risk giving the other party the impression that

• ctdonath 14y ago
  Perhaps they're useful as interview questions insofar as eliciting whether the applicant understands why it's not a good idea. One does not understand an opposing view unless one can give a convincing argument for that view, then tear it apart. I usually apply this to politics & philosophy, but it applies to engineering too: X is a clever approach, but subject to limitations Y. In this case, understanding that more information exists somewhere than is obvious shows insight ... and articulating the limitations of that concept demonstrates superior knowledge. It's not about swapping numbers, it's about how much information can be crammed into two variables and their metadata.
  • lucian1900 14y ago
    That doesn't work in interviews, since the candidate would be very reluctant to question the interviewer's task.