← Back to feed

Jake Gold (@jacob.gold): I've called this the 'The Kobayashi Maru' interview question for programmers. There's no "right" answer only painful trade-offs which makes it very revealing.

L3 · BuilderTutorials & Guides@jacob.gold· 10/5/2026

Provides a strategic hiring technique for builders who need to assess problem-solving and judgment in technical interviews.

AI Summary

A programmer shares a 'Kobayashi Maru' style interview question designed to reveal a candidate's decision-making process through difficult trade-offs rather than a single correct answer.

Excerpt

I've called this the 'The Kobayashi Maru' interview question for programmers. There's no "right" answer only painful trade-offs which makes it very revealing.

Read Original
0 upvotes · 0 downvotes · 1 min read

Related Articles

L3 · BuilderTutorials & GuidesHacker News
I turned my unused Kindle into a photo frame with GPT-6 Astra

A developer jailbroke an unused Kindle using GPT-6 Astra to create a photo slideshow app, detailing the technical process of building custom tools called KindleCTL.

L3 · BuilderTutorials & GuidesTowards Data Science
Agentic Systems: A Practitioner's Guide to 6 Advanced Architectural Patterns

A deep dive into 6 advanced architectural patterns for building production-ready agentic systems, covering context engineering and multi-agent workflows.

L4 · DeveloperTutorials & GuidesHacker News
500B Tokens Later: Letting AI Agents Decompile a First-Person Shooter

Developer shares insights from using AI agents (Claude, Codex) to decompile a first-person shooter game over 3 months, focusing on orchestration and infrastructure optimization.

L3 · BuilderTutorials & GuidesTowards Data Science
A Practical Guide to OpenAI's New Decisions API

OpenAI's Decisions API provides fast classification and decision-making endpoints for applications needing typed responses with confidence scores.

L3 · BuilderTutorials & GuidesSimon Willison's Blog
A new feature for my blog, built using my voice

Simon Willison built a new blog newsletter feature entirely using voice conversation with GPT-6 Astra High while cooking dinner.