[open592]

> i.e. if you wag your tail chasing a bad end for 15 mins, this is a fail in an interview

In all pair programming interviews I have run (which I will admit have been only a few) I would fail myself as an interviewer if I was not able to guide the interviewee away from a dead end within 15 minutes.

If the candidate wasn't able to understand the hints I was giving them, or just kept driving forward, then they would fail.

[raffraffraff]

Exactly! Who calls "researching how to build X, but then letting my pair-programming partner fall down a rabbit hole so I can feel superior" "pair programming".

[bigiain]

Way too many career and remuneration focused techbros. Often driven by bullshit management and stack ranking style promotion/firing pathways.

[michaelcampbell]

> I would fail myself as an interviewer

You are not most interviewers, alas.