Should I tell Her

The awkward moment when the game show host realizes all four answers are technically correct in programming contexts: Master-slave (the problematic database/device relationship pattern) Deforestation (removing trees from expression trees in functional programming) Children (those poor innocent DOM nodes) STD (Standard Template Library in C++, not what you're thinking) And this is why we're renaming everything in tech. The host's face says it all: "Did I just walk into the world's most uncomfortable tech interview?"

Ah yes, the classic "let's handle years with a switch statement" approach. Some poor developer back in 1999 was like: switch(year) {   case 2020: // pandemic mode   case 2021: // still pandemic   case 2022: // recovery mode   case 2023: // normal-ish   case 2024: // election chaos   // TODO: add more years later   default: trainControl.panic(); } And then they quit, got promoted, or died before anyone remembered to add 2025. Twenty-five years after Y2K and we're still writing software like time is a finite concept. This is why we can't have nice things... or functioning trains, apparently.

The top code uses proper control flow with nested if statements and while loops - structured, readable, and maintainable. The bottom code? Pure chaos with line numbers and goto statements jumping around like a caffeinated squirrel. Nothing says "I want my colleagues to suffer" quite like spraying goto statements throughout your code. It's like leaving landmines for the next developer who has to maintain your mess. The best part? Both programs return 69 - because even terrible code can sometimes get the job done. Pro tip: If you want job security, write code only you can understand. If you want respect, never use goto .

Congratulations, you've discovered the forbidden C hack that lets you skip semicolons by exploiting the return value of printf() inside an if statement. Next week: removing curly braces by nesting everything in a single ternary operator. The irony is palpable. Writing more code to avoid typing a single character is exactly the kind of "optimization" that keeps senior developers awake at night. It's like building an entire automated system just to avoid getting up to turn off the light switch.

The classic "technically correct but missing the point" approach to programming assignments! The question asks for a pattern program (probably expecting loops and logic), but this student just hard-coded the exact output with print statements. It's like being asked to build a car and instead drawing a picture of one. Sure, it looks right from a distance, but the teacher's probably running after you with a failing grade right now. The bottom image perfectly captures that moment of realization when you've completely missed the educational purpose of the assignment but still expect full marks because "it works."

Listen, there are certain sacred traditions in coding that you just don't question. Using i and j as loop variables isn't a choice—it's practically written in the ancient scrolls of computer science. Passed down from the FORTRAN elders to every generation since. Try using pancake and waffle as your nested loop variables during a code review and watch your senior dev have an existential crisis. The programming gods will smite you with merge conflicts for the rest of eternity. Sure, we could use more descriptive variable names, but that would be... reasonable? And we can't have that. IT'S THE LAW!