I've been asked similar questions and I think they have some merit and are actually useful if asked for the right reasons. Here are some thoughts:
If somebody expects you to give a perfect answer without leaving any details out, they're bananas and you're not getting the job (and you should be glad you're not going to work with them).
If you're interviewing for a backend position, you're expected to have some rudimentary knowledge about how the internet works.
If you're interviewing for a frontend position, you're supposed to have some idea about how your code is going to be sent to the user's machines and what is going to happen to it once it gets there (talk about loading times and such).
It's a good question to see how the candidate talks about a topic that is complex, can't be explained in depth in a few minutes, and that they probably don't fully understand. Do they make stuff up? Do they admit what they don't know? Can they communicate a very complex process in an understandable way? What level of detail do they choose to focus on? Can they make their message fit the audience if you ask them to explain it for their grandma?
To draw a parallelism with another profession, if you're in the business of making windows, you probably don't need to be an expert in metal foundry and glass blowing, but you should know that materials expand with heat and make sure that your windows can still be opened during summer (hint, not all of them appear to know that).
In summary, many interviews suck, and an interviewer can make this question suck, but I don't think that the problem lies in the question itself.
Yes, this absolutely. It's a measurement of behavior and thought process (as much as these things can be measured) not how many details and facts you were lucky enough to have already learned.
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I've been asked similar questions and I think they have some merit and are actually useful if asked for the right reasons. Here are some thoughts:
To draw a parallelism with another profession, if you're in the business of making windows, you probably don't need to be an expert in metal foundry and glass blowing, but you should know that materials expand with heat and make sure that your windows can still be opened during summer (hint, not all of them appear to know that).
In summary, many interviews suck, and an interviewer can make this question suck, but I don't think that the problem lies in the question itself.
Yes, this absolutely. It's a measurement of behavior and thought process (as much as these things can be measured) not how many details and facts you were lucky enough to have already learned.