Pretty funny actually.<p>The tactical error the interviewee made was not addressing the misconception on a different play field and then misplaying the politics (assuming he wanted the job). He should have brought the question up in each subsequent interview and seen the reaction of the organization.<p>The way to address the misconception is to pose a slightly different question of the interviewer, namely, is this O(N) or O(N^2):<p>for (i=0; i<N; i++)
{
for (j=0; j<N; j++)
{
if (i==j) maxtrix[i,j] = 1;
}
}<p>and this<p>for (i=0; i<N; i++)
{
for (j=i; j<=i; j++)
{
matrix[i,j] = 1;
}
}