I do the opposite. Whenever I delete anything I use rm -rf.
Just typing that triggers a fear response and makes me triple-check what I’m doing.

You don’t have to narrate your solution in real time.

IMO questions like this only make sense if you slightly modify them to make the “standard” answer impossible.
Then you see how the candidate reacts to curveballs.
I still think it’s more useful to ask the candidate for a problem they’ve solved in a creative way.

There is no correct answer. The interviewer wants to see how you approach the problem. You can have the correct answer but still make a bad impression, or you can fail to find the standard solution and still ace this test.

• Use the heat of the bulb to determine if it was on. (Shows you can memorize stupid interview questions)
• Ask a team member to coordinate with you in the other room. (You’re a team player)
• Use a cable locator (Proper tool for the trade)
• Put your phone in the other room, stream camera feed to your work laptop (The tech approach)
• Unscrew the bulb. Now you know that no switch controls the bulb (Exposing the flaw in the task’s phrasing)
• Open switch panel and disconnect one switch. Wait a day. If no one complains, disconnect the second. Wait a day. If no one complains, it’s probably the third. For good measure, disconnect the third switch. If still no one complains, remove all switches and the lightbulb, since they’re not needed anymore. (The Sysadmin approach)

You’re comparing a kernel with an entire operating system.