---
title: When you don't know something, what do you do?
description: Interview · Problem-Solving · Question 13
section: mind
tags: [interview, problem-solving]
genre: reference
stability: stable
lastUpdated: 2026-04-17
url: https://fardiniqbal.com/docs/mind/interview/problem-solving/when-you-dont-know-something-what-do-you-do
---


I used to make things up. I'm being honest about that because the honesty matters more than the impression.

There was a version of me that valued being seen as intelligent so much that admitting ignorance felt like a threat. If someone referenced something I hadn't read, I'd imply I had. If a conversation moved into territory I didn't understand, I'd hedge and generalize instead of asking. And then I'd feel like a fraud afterward, because I'd acted exactly like someone who isn't actually an intellectual.

I've worked on this deliberately. The practice is simple. When I don't know something, I say "I don't know" or "I'd need to look into that." And then I actually look into it. I've learned that admitting ignorance demonstrates more confidence than faking knowledge. The people I admire most, the ones I'd call genuinely intelligent, say "I don't know" constantly. Their intelligence shows in the quality of their questions, not in performing certainty.

In engineering specifically, when I hit something I don't recognize, I research before guessing. I read documentation, check GitHub issues, search for the actual error. When I was building Tiny Steps and encountered HIPAA compliance requirements I'd never dealt with, I didn't wing it. I studied the regulations, read about BAAs and AES-256 encryption and RBAC patterns, talked to people who'd built compliant systems. The result is software that handles PHI correctly, not because I already knew how, but because I respected what I didn't know enough to learn it properly.