> Asking someone experienced to write the "print a string in reverse" algorithm will naturally insult them.
Why? It's a trivial question that any programmer should be able to answer easily. An interview is a test. An interviewee should be happy if the test starts so simply. It's a chance to warm up and get in the groove.
When you took tests in school were you insulted if the first question on the page was too simple? No, you just answered it and were happy that you earned your first points so easily.
The reason it is annoying for people who are experienced is that generally they are looking for jobs where they get to work on difficult and interesting problems. Being asked such a simple question might indicate that you are interviewing for a position you won't want.
I'd personally be very tempted to answer the whiteboard question and immediately explain that I'm not interested in a job that consists only of writing trivial implementations and ask if they can give examples of real problems they face which are non-trivial.
I have actually had one interviewee ask me such a question, although not in response to a simple test or question of my own. This impressed me, although I get the impression that most interviewers would not appreciate this in a similar way to how they do not appreciate candidates that find their fizz-buzz test annoying.
An interview is not a one way test. It is a two way test where the employer can also fail.
Your answer implies you have a high ego as you consider the questions below you and only interested in satisfying your own intellect/ego instead of working in a team that gets shit done... read shipping products.
Precisely. It's a bozo-filter. _You_ know you're not a bozo but the interviewer doesn't (yet).
I ask questions like this in interviews because experience shows that a significant percentage of supposedly experienced developers have trouble with them.
If you ace the simple questions, you'll get something harder next.
Why? It's a trivial question that any programmer should be able to answer easily. An interview is a test. An interviewee should be happy if the test starts so simply. It's a chance to warm up and get in the groove.
When you took tests in school were you insulted if the first question on the page was too simple? No, you just answered it and were happy that you earned your first points so easily.