If I do my job right in an interview, I corner you into something we disagree on, and you tell me why you think I'm wrong. We get to learn how we handle conflict, and if we can have a reasonable disagreement. ;)
I am fond of design questions, both on the receiving and asking end. I drill down until you take a branch that I would distinctly choose not to. Then I press you for reasons. E.g., why would you write your web app in C++?
edit: Note that someone who is genuinely very close to me in opinions won't challenge me in ways that really produce a useful diversity of opinion. They would, however, likely agree with my sense of strategy and tactics; this might lead to a collective blindspot where a deeper problem is overlooked. Being able to professionally disagree and then work together to form a final result is very important.
>this might lead to a collective blindspot where a deeper problem is overlooked. Being able to professionally disagree and then work together to form a final result is very important.
I agree with you. I just don't think phone screens are a good place for these discussions. I used the tactic above just to get through the initial phone conversation where I had a high degree of uncertainty of who I'm talking to. :)
Haha! I had a great interview recently where we sketched out a design for an online game on the whiteboard. Got to explore lots of interesting questions like API versioning, REST vs sessions, and basic security problems. The good natured discussion of the various options was a big part of why I decided to join the company.
