> the first person answered everything perfectly, the second didn't.

I mean... They clearly didn't otherwise they would have had the job.

> once, i got a person that was incredibly smart, but they where not a cultural fit.

Do you somehow think cultural fit is not part of "the right answer"? It's just as much if not more so given how subjective interviews are... Which just goes back to my original point.

> answers are only data points and the whole point of interviewing is looking at datapoints and getting to an answer

So... Some answers are better than others. Some answers will "give" higher scores while others will have low. Some may have no good data to provide, some may even give negative score. This is, quite literally, the definition of right and wrong answers.

As a result, there are very much wrong answers. Even though you say there aren't, you yourself have clearly shown there are. If someone gives an answer you don't like, they will be scored lower than someone that gives an answer you do like.

Just because you're obfuscating it behind a vague "overall answer" doesn't mean you're not taking the answer, evaluating and judging it, and then using it to make your decision.

Put another way, if there's no wrong answers then how are you rejecting people? Everyone has correct answers to all your questions, after all.

on the spectrum of “right <————> wrong” answers…

… because it is a spectrum as it’s not binary/mathematics we’re dealing with here, it’s fuzzy human stuff…

… there is a difference between “absolutely wrong” and “not right as much as that other person we interviewed”.

there are absolute wrong answers. if you tell me in the interview that you worked for north korea’s security services im noping the fuck outta that interview.

but if you say “i hate XYZ” and our team loves XYZ, then, like, i mean, yeah, that’s not ideal. it’s not wrong. maybe we could put you on something where you don’t work with XYZ directly. but are you going to be as happy and productive as someone who actually likes XYZ? cos you’re gonna have to deal with XYZ at some point working here.

there are absolute wrongs, but, 99.99% of people don’t say things like that in interviews.

and the things you seem to be referring to in a binary manner right/wrong are, really, more about where in the SPECTRUM of right/wrong you come out in the aggregate.

that’s why we tell people in interviews that there’s no wrong answer. it’s to help calm them down, help them feel comfortable, so we can find out where they sit on the spectrum of “fitting in” without interview anxiety getting in the way and making them give stilted answers where we, as interviewers, don’t get a chance to find out who these people are.

edit: sorry i added a bunch after posting. i’m having one of those days.