Yes, it's a prep issue

I also think it’s much harder to recall something “on command” or come up with a list of things. Similarly to the way that it’s much harder to come up with a list of synonyms for a word even if you know the meaning of all the synonyms.

IMHO it’s not just an interviewee prep issue, it’s also an interviewer prep issue. My experience suggests it’s not good technical interview strategy to do a pop quiz on esoteric knowledge.

Even better when that post teaches Present-you something new, that Past-you already knew but has since gone. Been there done that.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having searched for an issue and found my OWN answer to it on Stack Exchange - been there. It left me with a mixed feeling of being full of it back then and seemingly knowing a lot more back then :)

It might also worth focusing on the parts of your work history that are likely to be relevant. Interviewers aren't trying to catch lies on your resume, they're trying to work out if you've got experience and knowledge that will be useful for the job you're applying for. If they do ask about specifics of a previous job that you can't remember, it's also okay to say that you don't remember, but to talk about how you'd approach that sort of problem now with your current expertise.

This. Just turning up without any preparation and thus no earthly idea how to answer any questions is not a great interview strategy. If you're that unprepared for a basic one-hour meeting, how can you be expected to perform your job properly in day-to-day life? It would be an immediate no from me I'm afraid.

The google-and-find-your-own-answer thing has happened to me (I distinctly remember sending some friends in the industry a message about my imminent senility) and I've only been programming for about 7-8 years. I think this is probably also more prevalent if you do lots of different kinds of programming e.g. if you're a full stack engineer who is doing frontend, backend, databases, dev ops... tough to remember the details on all of everything.

I think it's really important to be honest in interviews and simply say "I don't remember anything about this, and didn't even bother to look it up because, quite frankly, I don't see the importance of remembering technical details apart from the major hurdles perhaps." - or something to that effect. If the employer thinks otherwise, that's fine, you are probably dodging a bullet avoiding inexperienced management.

@Frank Being honest is good, and if you're in that situation then it's a good response... but you shouldn't be getting into that situation. Everybody with even a tiny amount of research behind them on how interviews work should know that this is something they need to prepare and take with them. What's the point in going to an interview with zero information about what you've worked on and how you've done it? What are you bringing to the interview? As an interviewer it would be not just a waste of time, but also annoying and insulting.

@AsteroidsWithWings Partially true. I'd swot up on the last 5 years or so, but I started coding (professionally) in 1992 and seriously if anyone started asking me technical details of anything going back beyond like 5 years I'd probably just laugh at them like they were clowning around.

@AsteroidsWithWings Having said that though, with my level and length of experience, I don't think I have had to have an 'interview' at all for the last decade or so. It becomes more like talking about a life story, going through your professional career verbally. Most of the time I feel like I am establishing a partnership, a relationship, as it gets to the point where both sides know you can't avoid eventually becoming part of the exec decision making with that scope of experience. In the software sphere it's really so little to do with technical knowhow.

@Frank Right, and if you don't remember any of your professional career, and didn't bother to refresh your memory before the interview, I'm just not going to give you the job.

@Frank Obviously I'm not talking about "what variable names did you use on 3rd January 1998?"

@Frank It's not about relevance. It's about basic etiquette and making the bare amount of effort before taking up my time to interview you for a job. A reminder about the context here: the OP seems to recall nothing and did no preparation on that whatsoever.

@AsteroidsWithWings Yeah I am not talking about variable names either, but you know the sort of clown in interviews: "Tell me some of the major challenges you faced in 2002 using asp.net 1.1?" FFS

@Frank Yeah I mean that's a pretty dumb question. I might ask about it, but only as far as "Do you remember back in your ASP.NET days? Anything you miss about it?" Then "nah, not really, I don't remember much about it to be honest and I think now using mostly X, Y, Z is much nicer because A, B, C" - and that would have taken five minutes to prepare beforehand. 🤷‍♂️

@AsteroidsWithWings I agree with you on the whole. If I was doing an interview I'd run through the whole CV just to make sure I get my professional chronology straight, but swot up on the details of my work only the last 5 yrs or so.

@Frank That sounds reasonable

@AsteroidsWithWings That sounds like something I would exactly say actually. Ok, i accept your job ;-)

@Frank Now that was a successful interview!

@AsteroidsWithWings Wait till you see my salary expectations.

@Frank Wait till you see your salary reality

@AsteroidsWithWings I accept beer as a form of currency

@Frank Sold. Just need to check how that works with respect to pension contributions. HR will be in touch. Thanks for coming in

@AsteroidsWithWings Thanks. Hope the HR chick's a hottie. Tell her I hate PC and my preferred pronouns are "Him/Hot Stuff/Mr Big"

@Frank We've decided to go in another direction. Best of luck in your search