Comment by scriby

I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with this programming question, except that it might be a little involved for a short interview.

The purpose of this question isn't to tell you whether the candidate can program chess boards or not. It could be used to help find candidates who:

* Have experience with search algorithms

* Specifically have experience with backtracking solutions

* Can reason through a complex problem (and communicate while doing so)

* Paid attention in school / knowledge retention (for recent grads)