IBM's Asshole Test
When I interviewed at Google in 2006, one of the interviewers asked me to write code for solving a particular problem.  I replied along the lines of &quot;ok I need to think about this, it&#x27;s not obvious how to solve it&quot; and started thinking.  Time ticked away.  Five minutes.  Ten minutes.  Fifteen minutes.  The interviewer started reminding me that he needed me to write some code and if there wasn&#x27;t anything for him to copy down into his interview notes I wasn&#x27;t going to pass the interview.  (Why interviewers were all <i>transcribing the whiteboard</i> rather than taking photos I have no clue.)<p>Eventually I ran out of time, having written no code on the whiteboard.  I asked my interviewer &quot;ok so what <i>is</i> the algorithm for solving this&quot; and he admitted that he had no idea.<p>At the time, I thought he just meant that <i>he</i> had no idea what the solution was; but in hindsight I wonder if the real test was to see if I would crumble under pressure and write code I knew didn&#x27;t work.<p>(I got a job offer, but turned it down to start Tarsnap instead.)