What I've learned from 100s of interviews with candidates at top tech companies
The advice about not giving up on the question is a key point here.<p>In a previous startup I would ask a single question that would take 30+ minutes to work through with no expectations that the candidate would ever get the answer. All I cared about was if you could break down the issues and move from one set to the next in trying to narrow down the issue. I cared deeply about how you thought, not what you knew.<p>As people will ask the question had to do with networking and knowning the answer required you to have seen the issue before and have had delved deep enough into the Ethernet HW specs to get the answer.<p>Narrowing down the question just required you to think and be able to problem sovle. At the end most people never figured it out but those that spent the time attacking the problem and asking question are the ones that got job offers.