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The comment literally states that it's one of the questions they ask, which is the exact opposite of a gotcha question.

And the specific question can lead to a conversation, which may "reveal" the answer (obviously, I don't know whether this is the correct answer), but at the very least it reveals whether the interviewee thinks about selection bias, among other concerns.

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> The comment literally states that it's one of the questions they ask, which is the exact opposite of a gotcha question.

Huh? "Gotcha question" doesn't imply it's a single question that's not part of a series of questions. A "gotcha question" is simply a question designed such that it's very easy to respond with something that sounds bad or is incorrect.

Is it really easy not to come up with the desired explanation here? It seems like the most obvious possible answer, that people tend to watch the types of movies that they like. Actually it seems to provide almost no information unless their hiring pool is mostly candidates who utterly lack common sense.

I recall reading that someone found fizzbuzz (with nothing fancy) to be a highly effective filter for programming interviews

Hiring pools tend to be filled with nonsense candidates

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