Yeah, I know I would want the rules explained to me. Personally, I think that it is a positive that an interviewer doesn't assume any extraneous knowledge on th

Yeah, I know I would want the rules explained to me. Personally, I think that it is a positive that an interviewer doesn't assume any extraneous knowledge on the candidate's part, since it prevents the candidate being in a position where they may feel anxious or embarrassed about asking for help or clarification, and lets them focus on demonstrating the coding abilities. It also presents a way to clear up any ambiguities right at the start. Replace soccer with something like curling, or analyzing corn yields, or whatever obscure topic an interviewer wants to use to frame a question, and the interviewer's question comes across as perfectly valid thing to ask.