>Why I ask "how many golf balls fit on a bus?" in job interviews
Perhaps, you think that a direct question about realtime monitoring systems isn't tricky enough?
Perhaps, you think that a direct question about realtime monitoring systems isn't tricky enough?
Asking stupid questions like golfballs on a bus sends a signal of "we need geniuses for some reason" and is intended to make the candidate think "wow, the interview questions were so hard, everyone that works here must be really smart!"
Someone in HR most like can't judge the answer to the question "How would you scale X, given Y and Z", nor could they come up with such a question that is appropriate for the position in question.
Such questions do more to isolate the variables, (1) the job to be performed, and (2) the interviewer's ability to judge the answer to a question relevant to the job. I can really only see such a question being asks by somebody that doesn't know why they are doing the hiring in the first place.
Judging by the responses in this thread, such a question is controversial, especially among the type of people that make up the HN community. That alone should be indicative that such a question may result in a high rate of false negatives. You probably lose more good candidates than gain.
Solid architecture involves having an order of magnitude estimate of the load you might expect and building accordingly.
How do you get your order of magnitude estimates?