Comment by pdpi

> I ended up trying to explain that tail-recursivity doesn't explode in memory for the rest of the call (and failed)

I count that as a successful interview – They sent an interviewer who doesn't understand how tail recursion enables tail call elimination, and is either unwilling or unable to listen when is is explained to them. Sounds like the company would be a bad fit for somebody whose go-to approach is to implement the solution that way.