I absolutely agree. As both an interviewee and interviewer I prefer this approach. There's nothing worse than having someone spend 5 minutes waffling or doing v

I absolutely agree. As both an interviewee and interviewer I prefer this approach. There's nothing worse than having someone spend 5 minutes waffling or doing very little, then tell you they're going for the complex solution without having shown you the simple one. Honestly, when I interview and ask a question like this, it's a leading question. I want the simple solution as a FizzBuzz style test of your abilities, then I'm going to ask "and what problems can you see with this solution?" and we'll go from there.