# "Stump the chump" questions

- **Episode:** [135](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/135.md) (2024-10-10)
- **Type:** panel-interview
- **Tags:** interview-questions, stump-the-chump, tech-interviews, preparation
- **Time:** 38:15–41:36 (start 2295s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/135?t=2295](https://truthliesandwork.com/135?t=2295)

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[38:15] Nick Korte: I would call them stump the chump questions. My theory is that those may actually come from being interviewed by someone who could be like your teammate in the future, who just hasn't really been taught how to interview people. And it wasn't clearly communicated to that person what the hiring manager wanted in an individual. Maybe, maybe there's some ego that that person brought into the discussion. Or maybe they just need to ask the question a little bit differently so that it doesn't come off as combative. Or put the, put the person answering on the defensive. You know, I may, I may need to understand what you know about the Linux command line. But I can ask questions in a way that are constructive and productive, and not something that's just going to step in your Cheerios, if you know what I'm saying
[39:16] John White: Yeah, that combative question is, uh, you know, or the, uh, how, you know, how much do you know about this obscure part of the job? You know, not necessarily productive, but it also can be a way for the interviewee to explain their thought process, you know. Or it's, you know, I remember again at a previous position You know, we would say like, we're— our interview process is probing for the edge of your knowledge, right? Because we need to understand where the edge is so that we can assess whether that's a good edge or, or a bad edge. Or, you know, if it's, if it's not really that far out there, do you have other aspects of your job skills that compensate for that? You know, it's just, it's just, it might be an assessment, and it also might be a way for you to demonstrate your thought process and how you solve problems like this. Oh, in this, you know, very technical example that Nick gave, you know, this command line on Linux command line. Oh, I don't know that specific, you know, command, but, you know, I've used, you know, this command and this command to do similar things. So I think I, you know, I'd maybe I'd I'd look up the documentation and see how similar to that it is. And then if I still didn't understand, I might go ask a colleague. Basically, here's how I solve problems that I don't know the answer to. That's a great point. It's a really good way in an interview to show that. And it's feedback that you can give to a recruiter or You know, hiring manager, you know, as they ask you about the process. Hey, how, how are the things going? Oh, you know, I got this interview question where, um, you know, they're asking me about, you know, something that was really at the edge of my knowledge, and I— all I could really do was answer about how, how I'd figure that out. And, you know, because I didn't know anything about it, I, I, I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but that's what I did, you know. So you can again give feedback Um, through, throughout the, uh, the process
[41:28] Al Elliott: So thankfully, it seems like the days of these trick questions and marathon interview processes might be behind us. But what about after you get the job?