> but if you can't declare and populate an associative array in the main language you're interviewing in you shouldn't be surprised if your interviewer fails you.
What if I can google how to do that in all of the languages I've used (and many I haven't) faster than most can write it out from memory? How do I convey that to you and what is it worth to you?
Wrote memorization like that is one of my weaknesses but I can compensate for it. I heard an interesting theory that one aspect of intelligence is how efficiently you can forget information that you don't benefit from retaining. If our brains have finite storage capacity that seems pretty logical.