Yes, the problem with the look-and-say sequence is that it's not something that you can derive; it requires having the right insight. This makes it a bit diffe

Yes, the problem with the look-and-say sequence is that it's not something that you can derive; it requires having the right insight. This makes it a bit different from other problems, where the interviewer is often not even so much interested in the solution, but in how you go about finding one. Many other sequence problems are amenable to a more systematic approach that at least tell them something about your problem-solving techniques. With the look-and-say sequence, you either see it or you don't. Regardless of whether you got it right or not, it doesn't tell an interviewer much about you, and is therefore not a good use of the limited time they have with you that could be used more productively.