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Fair question, and the kind of stuff I usually do as well. As they say, the only way to prove your ability to get anything done is to actually do it. Clever puzzle questions are useless in my experience.

This is a good question as it gives you a chance to observe how the candidate actually approaches a problem. You can learn much about someone from the questions that they ask in the process of selecting tools for the job. It is also a good question as the problem is general enough that a developer of the experience you are looking for can be expected to have something to say.

a good question, maybe even a little easy tho

Good question... though a little too open-ended. There are many ways you can talk about this -- from a standpoint of ORM, or code organization, or MVC frameworks. Leaves the question -- where do you begin?

It's open-ended for a reason. Even a "where should I begin?" response tells me something. I've had a candidate just completely freeze up and say "I don't know"...then I start providing more info, then some more, then some more...then I had to move on. If I make it more specific, I can't get a feel for if someone just throws technology at a problem or if they can be a little more abstract and identify the task and issues, the approach it.

Some Ran guy/girl posted a comment on that blog. I rather agree with that comment though I voted up here on DZone. That comment copied and pasted here:

"I agree with you. This is a great interview question that shows what technology stacks the interviewee is accustomed to and is familiar with.
However, I suggest guiding with a specific technology stack, having a ready-made deployment scenario. Also, when the interviewee is stuck, it doesn’t always mean he doesn’t know. Try supplying more “environment details” like “we’re using SQL server for persistence” or “we have an apache tomcat as our front end”. These details would focus the interview instead of having the interviewee fishing for details. So for a “what DB are you using?” you should answer (IMO): “Your choice, but you if it helps you, assume MS SQL server”."

I know you can't tell from what I've laid out on my blog post, but as part of the interview I layout our standard stack at the beginning and allow them to talk about their experiences with various parts throughout the interview. I've had a candidate start their answer by asking me "Should I keep it within the confines of what you're already using, which is ...?". That was a good start IMO.

And I agree with the comment about just because they're stuck doesn't mean they don't know. It's up to them to realize they're stuck and decide if they need more information. I want to see how they go about asking for clarification when they hit a fork in the road.

Jared, whoever voted up here on DZone, appreciate your post. Agree with you...

Thanks.

I'm glad you clarified that, I was confused by the simplicity of this question. Wondering if this was a database design question or if it was to be applied to an existing data structure. How many candidates have suggested RLIKE()? :)

i will be deffinately using a question like this the next time im helping in hiring devs