If you happen to know the answer already then the question is ruined. In this way, every algorithm puzzle in the world can be ruined by trivia. For an algorithm question to be interesting, I hope the reader doesn’t already know the answer and has to figure it out her/himself. So in questions #1 and #3, I’m hoping the reader doesn’t know the relevant trivia and will instead independently derive the answers without looking them up.
I’m not trying to ask “Do you know how Poland cracked the Enigma?” I’m trying to ask “Can you figure out how Poland cracked the Enigma?”
I don’t grade these questions. These questions are for fun and self-improvement. Though I could imagine a timed written test with dozens of questions like this where the testee gets one point for each correct answer and loses one point for each incorrect answer. A sufficiently large number of questions might help counteract the individual variance.
If you happen to know the answer already then the question is ruined. In this way, every algorithm puzzle in the world can be ruined by trivia. For an algorithm question to be interesting, I hope the reader doesn’t already know the answer and has to figure it out her/himself. So in questions #1 and #3, I’m hoping the reader doesn’t know the relevant trivia and will instead independently derive the answers without looking them up.
I’m not trying to ask “Do you know how Poland cracked the Enigma?” I’m trying to ask “Can you figure out how Poland cracked the Enigma?”
I don’t grade these questions. These questions are for fun and self-improvement. Though I could imagine a timed written test with dozens of questions like this where the testee gets one point for each correct answer and loses one point for each incorrect answer. A sufficiently large number of questions might help counteract the individual variance.