Did you read the whole post? In the interview, the questions were posed as starting points for discussion, not as a pass/fail trick quiz. And that completely changes how I for one react to them. I'd say there are plenty of valid reasons for finding out what a candidate thinks about code like these examples!
My reaction to an interview along these lines would be:
- Answer the questions.
- Discuss why tricky code like that is bad, how I would refactor it, when and why I might choose to document rather than refactor, and the value of coding standards in preventing such code being written in the first place.
I'd make my decision on whether it was a place I wanted to work based on how the discussion went, not the questions themselves; and I'd hope the interviewer would judge me likewise.
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