You can get into bucket 2 if you just use hash tables and know the most basic information about their use. Plenty of candidates were in this bucket and passed the rest of the interview.
I still gave the rest of the non-hash table interview to every candidate. What I'm saying what the hash table question was a tremendous predictor of candidate success in every other aspect of the interview. System design, algorithms, problem solving, etc.
Candidates that didn't know anything about a hash table, even just the most basic idea of "fast insert/lookup/delete key-value datastructure", almost universally failed almost every aspect of the rest of the interview.
Candidates that know the basics could go either way.
Candidates that know all the details almost universally crushed every other aspect, including very unrelated things like distributed system design.
I still gave the rest of the non-hash table interview to every candidate. What I'm saying what the hash table question was a tremendous predictor of candidate success in every other aspect of the interview. System design, algorithms, problem solving, etc.
Candidates that didn't know anything about a hash table, even just the most basic idea of "fast insert/lookup/delete key-value datastructure", almost universally failed almost every aspect of the rest of the interview.
Candidates that know the basics could go either way.
Candidates that know all the details almost universally crushed every other aspect, including very unrelated things like distributed system design.