How would you answer this question if you got it during a job interview? Oddly, it seems a bit like the infamous "spit ball an answer to how many dentists there are in Cleveland" type questions Google was famous (or infamous) for. The number of sheep might be a clue to age if shepherds accumulate sheep in a lifetime (naturally, no reason to think they do, sadly).

There's a lot of authority issues involved. Do you admit to an authority that you don't know how to solve X? Do you challenge an authority that they don't know either? Do you doubly challenge that authority by alleging they gave you a bullshit question for kicks?

And after authorities throw such a question at students, they're happy to draw conclusions about what feeble solution efforts the student made?

And this is after students have been inured to treating math as a bondage and discipline exercise in following instructions, after math has been drained of any large meaning.

The people did this experiment should be whipped with a wet noodle.