JFC, that's such bullshit. You want the mundane? Go for it. You actually want someone who can take a bunch of real operational data and solve the problem whe

JFC, that's such bullshit. You want the mundane? Go for it. You actually want someone who can take a bunch of real operational data and solve the problem when the Person With The Money says, "We need to know what is actually happening with ____. And we've promised it in two days. You're it." Who gives a flying fuck about writing the best sorting algorithm? "sort" works just fine, unless you're Google and microseconds matter. And then, you're really at the edge of R&D. You need to be able to manipulate data with aplomb. You need to be able to write an algorithm that works, and then refine it to make it go a hundred (or more) times faster once you understand why it is so slow.