Ridiculous. The question here isn't "how would you design X" or "estimate the amount of time to do Y" or "explain how you'd debug Z" (all infinitely better interview questions, by the way). It was "how do I perform a particular bit manipulation in C". Google is a fine resource for questions like that.
I also sincerely believe that the more you know about C bit manipulation (particularly the kind of manipulation you need to, e.g., figure out whether a UTF-8 encoding is nonminimal), the less unreasonable that Google search seems.
I've been a C programmer since 1994 and interviewed lord knows how many C programmers and I'd never flunk someone for looking this up, nor would I care if they told me if they had looked it up. Obviously, 'cletus feels differently, but I think he's wrong.
I also sincerely believe that the more you know about C bit manipulation (particularly the kind of manipulation you need to, e.g., figure out whether a UTF-8 encoding is nonminimal), the less unreasonable that Google search seems.
I've been a C programmer since 1994 and interviewed lord knows how many C programmers and I'd never flunk someone for looking this up, nor would I care if they told me if they had looked it up. Obviously, 'cletus feels differently, but I think he's wrong.