Im amazed how many commenters assume the questions assume a single required answer. Is this how universities work where you studied? By the standard HN demographics, I'll assume that is mostly the US.

Having studied in the UK, clearly the point is to elicit a well-thought through argument. The "answer" almost doesn't matter at all. A boring but "correct" argument is easily beaten by a novel one, even (or especially) if it is controversial, flippant or even somewhat ridiculous.

Of course there is a limit, if you straight-faced start promoting killing people, or worse still, Oxbridge academics, that won't fly. But I'd say that limit is quite far.

There are of course 2nd order effects too, as in "I don't reject this argument because it offends me but because it is poor".

The responses reflect people from engineering backgrounds who are unfamiliar with this type of exam, not an American versus UK thing.

In engineering there isn’t room for creative and controversial answers when you’re asked to solve an exam problem.

It is rather fitting to see some try to turn this into another chance to stereotype Americans rather than realizing the obvious explanation that this is a website with a global audience that is biased toward software and engineering.

>Are all asylum seekers equal?

You are completely out of touch if you genuinely believe that certain "controversial" answers to the quoted prompt, for example, would have any chance of being well-received, no matter how "well-thought through". Imprisonment is even a possibility.