[strickjb9]

As an interviewer, I don't ask this question but if I did then you could impress me by asking what a binary search tree is, then I would tell you, then you explain or write how you would do it.

Most of these interview questions aren't designed to be trivia. It's designed because your job IS implementation of technical and business problems.

[cableshaft]

They might not be trivia, but they're not presented in the same manner as someone would be doing on the job and/or the candidate isn't given the same access to tools they normally have when working and/or there's an 'on the spot' requirement to answer the question.

I don't store everything in my head anymore. I have a general understanding of the concept and a mental pointer in the form of the search term to put in google to refresh how to implement the thing.

I have to implement 10-20 concepts across 5-10 languages or APIs or technologies every single day usually, my brain doesn't work like a database where every record that's inserted is there permanently until I update or delete it. The stuff I'm not using regularly gets fuzzier and fuzzier and goes back to "general concept mode" if I'm not actively using it.

So when someone asks me to write a full iOS app during an interview when I've been making Microsoft business apps for the past year, even though I've written and released multiple full iOS apps at previous jobs, I can't just sit down and produce a perfectly working app like a robot, especially if I didn't have much time to prepare for the interview (that recruiter contacted me three days earlier and didn't tell me he set up an interview until 8pm the night before).

With technical questions it's even worse, because I could have been spending days and days refreshing my knowledge but you happen to choose one of the things I didn't think to refresh my brain on. And so I waffle on the answer and you go "oooh, looks like he doesn't know anything". No, I've got a full decade of making apps and software, in lead roles, in multiple industries with a bunch of different technologies. I know plenty. I just didn't have that question fresh in my head.

Then you pass, and lose out on someone you would have benefited from greatly in favor of the recent grad student that hasn't made anything but toy programs yet got tested on all those concepts within the past six months so it's fresh in their heads.

[carloscheddar]

Couldn't agree more.

[huehehue]

That's usually not how it works though. You're more likely to be laughed out of the room for asking such a silly question, despite the fact the (presumably technical) interviewer could do no better without the teacher's copy in front of them.

An aside, but I think interviews like this should allow Internet connections. Give the candidate a minute to look something up and digest it in their own way. It should be obvious whether they'll get the concept or just recite the Wikipedia definition. Just as important is how they do their research, and how they draw connections between foreign and familiar concepts given a blueprint of the former.

[st3v3r]

"As an interviewer, I don't ask this question but if I did then you could impress me by asking what a binary search tree is, then I would tell you, then you explain or write how you would do it."

Maybe. Or you would scoff, turn your nose up, mutter "noob" under your breath, and move on, knowing you're not going to hire me.

I'm sure you yourself would do as you said, but I can't be so sure about random interviewer person.