My Favorite Interview Question

One of my favorite work duties is conducting technical interviews. Though things have slowed down quite a bit recently, I've conducted over 850 interviews for Amazon and have trained over 1,000 people on how to conduct technical interviews here. To give candidates a fair interview, you have to read their resumes and any prior interview feedback beforehand. I like to visit their website or GitHub if they provide it. And of course, you have to come up with fair questions and also provide you with enough information to make up your mind. A consistent struggle for me is minimizing the amount of time required to be fully prepared. So, I love questions that I can ask a wide range of candidates. A good question is difficult to fake answers to, something candidates are likely to be prepared for (i.e., the question doesn't blindside them), and one that tells you many things on many levels about the candidate.

My favorite question is a behavioral one but with a technical twist. The question is: …