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I'm much more concerned if the candidate is a person that shows up on time, with a good attitude, takes heat and shares credit, builds people up and isn't afraid to speak their mind. If they have a rudimentary understanding of the time constraints of linear vs constant time that's a bonus, otherwise I could teach them that.

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I come across candidate A who shows up on time, with a good attitude, takes heat and shares credit, builds people up, isn't afraid to speak their mind and offers a smart-ass answer to a problem designed to evaluate whether the candidate understands the underlying concepts.

Then I come across candidate B who shosw up on time, with a good attitude, takes heat and shares credit, builds people up, isn't afraid to speak their mind and offers a genuine and insightful answer to a problem designed to evaluate whether the candidate understands the underlying concepts.

I am definitely going to hire candidate B.

And where did they give a "smart-ass answer"? A question was asked, an answer was provided. Does the answer solve the problem? Yes. If you want to know more then ask. If you want to hear something else that's a failure of the interviewer, not the interviewee.

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