I don't see why that makes it a terrible interview question, though. Maybe you want to hire people who read about this kind of thing for fun. They may also have read about other things.
Colleges pick their students based on basic vocabulary and 9th grade math questions.
Effective practices can work even if you have no idea why you're doing it that way. In fact, I'd say that that state of affairs is more the norm than the exception.
These questions are good if and only if you get to see the person think through the problem. If they just regurgitate they might get the right answer but they'll probably mess up the explanation
