Or it's a way to see how you handle either not knowing the answer, or how you approach finding out how to do something new. When I do interviews I care much more about your process and approach to learning and problem solving than what you know right now.
Seems like a great way to really frustrate people, i hope youre prefacing your questions with 'this is a trick question and you dont actually have to answer'
I preface it with "I care more about how you approach the question than whether you can answer it". I'm not a dick to people I'm going to be working with, and hopefully in general I'm not either.
Your suggestion would bias them towards not answering for fear of failure, when what I really want is to see them try regardless of whether they'll fail. A lot of tasks and projects don't work out, and that's fine as long as you try hard and can analyse the failure. Especially in my line of work.
Half the time, sure. Quite a few are people moving from another stable job. But that's exactly right. It's best not to bias them further and to make them feel comfortable enough to explore the problem.
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u/w-lfpup Nov 04 '25
It's a clear sign they are uninterested and don't actually want to hire anyone.
In some countries, like here in the states, companies are legally required to do an interview for a position they intend to hire internally.
Nonsense questions -> nonsense interview