up vote -6 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I was reviewing interview questions for a dev position and stumbled upon this question. What are your thoughts?

link|improve this question
3  
The correct response is "There are four lights!" youtu.be/3kmG7KXxShM – jfrankcarr Feb 2 at 1:49
2  
(2+2) mod 3 == 1. – S.Lott Feb 2 at 1:52
1  
True for base 3 or 4. – Hand-E-Food Feb 2 at 1:53
1  
This sounds like a job for xkcd: xkcd.com/169 – Ryan Culpepper Feb 2 at 2:09
4  
For sufficiently large (or small) values of 2... – Anna Lear♦ Feb 2 at 3:42
show 5 more comments
feedback

closed as not constructive by Yannis Rizos♦, maple_shaft♦, Jonathan Khoo, World Engineer, Bernard Feb 2 at 3:38

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

In my opinion questions like that are aimed at how creative you can be with your answers.

  1. if you're adding the value of the character '2'
  2. if + operator is overloaded to do something else
  3. if 2+2 is a string and not an expression to be evaluated

you name it. :-)

link|improve this answer
Nice answer, programming related. – psr Feb 2 at 3:36
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

Because of miscibility, 2 liters of water mixed with 2 liters of ethanol produces 3.84 liters of mixture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

In the prime field GF3, 2 + 2 is 1, not 4. In fact, 4 doesn't even exist in GF3.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote -1 down vote

If the variables containing the Values of the 2's are floating point variables, their sum may not necessarily be 4.

link|improve this answer
2  
No, floating point arithmetic is precise for small integers (magnitude up to about 2^53 for doubles, IIRC). – Ryan Culpepper Feb 2 at 2:10
feedback

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.