I also believe in coding questions but the linked list question in this situation wasn't a good one to use for both candidates.
Why? Well of course the kid straight out of university would answer a question on data structures correctly, he probably did the class for that only a few months prior.
In your example, Candidate A was obviously a no-hire after not even knowing what braces a C function uses but a lot of people similar to Candidate A who can actually code are being presented with questions about linked lists and similar structures no-one who has written code for years would remember, let alone use in their daily work lives.
I want to say again, I'm 100% for coding questions but I think they should reflect more on the type of work you need the candidate to do in the job rather than some academic examples you feel you must ask just because Microsoft/Amazon do.
Why? Well of course the kid straight out of university would answer a question on data structures correctly, he probably did the class for that only a few months prior.
In your example, Candidate A was obviously a no-hire after not even knowing what braces a C function uses but a lot of people similar to Candidate A who can actually code are being presented with questions about linked lists and similar structures no-one who has written code for years would remember, let alone use in their daily work lives.
I want to say again, I'm 100% for coding questions but I think they should reflect more on the type of work you need the candidate to do in the job rather than some academic examples you feel you must ask just because Microsoft/Amazon do.