My mid-mark would be where someone could write the code for the brute-force answer for both parts but couldn't get the memoize / dynamic-programming solution. That would be where I'd say "I'm not sure, look at other interviews". Otherwise I'll make a hire / no-hire recommendation.

Interesting. Thanks for the honest answer. (For the record, I'd do fine with brute-forcing both parts but would struggle with memoization in an interview context).

Depends on role and level as well. SRE or junior SWE might get a “hire” for that but a senior SWE probably would go back to the other interviews as mentioned above.