> "what's the favorite bug you've ever fixed?"

Questions like this are why I'm beginning to dread the whole hiring process. It's a great question in some situations, but absolutely dreadful in others.

If you catch me with it during a two-week sprint when I worked on an interesting bug, I'll have no problem answering it and the discussion will be fun for both of us. But if you catch me at a different moment, I'll draw a blank and start feeling pressured.

Yeah, bugs can be extremely rewarding and interesting, but not everyone will find them memorable enough to be able to talk about them in the context of an interview question.

For example, if you asked me that question right now, I would be hard-pressed to answer it. Sure, I've had interesting bugs, but I've spent the last several weeks leading a greenfield project and having to deal with project management bullshit I never signed up for in the first place, and interesting bugs are not in my "mental cache".

Which brings me to my biggest gripe with this kind of question: people like to be reasonably prepared for an interview, and throwing this kind of unexpected question can make them feel bad.

That doesn't mean that no one should ever ask questions like that. If the candidate explains that they can't think of the answer at the moment and why, and if the interviewer doesn't hold that against them (as long as the explanation is valid), then it's okay.