Seems weird to me that asking a specific question about what it is you're trying to achieve would be negative. Especially since most interviews often open with feel free to ask clarifying questions or something along those lines.

If the prompt is unclear its worth getting clarity, just like if something is unclear in the job you seek clarity, I feel like people not asking questions would be a big red flag.

of course, asking too many (this is subjective but I think we can all think of a reasonable situation where there were too many questions being asked relative to their value) could be a red flag

> just like if something is unclear in the job you seek clarity

There are a distressing number of managers / leads I have encountered who consider that if you're asking for clarity, you're impugning their powers of explanation because CLEARLY they explained it well enough (after all, they understand it!) and you're either an idiot or being sarcastic to undermine them.

Could it be because the clarification questions are perceived as not understanding? Would it help if one prefaced with something like "Well, there's many different ways like X, Y and Z and the best one depends on the details of the requirements. Did you have something specific in mind and if so what are those requirements?"

By mentioning a few ways you'd show you're aware of various solutions, and you'd also provide context for why you're asking probing questions.

Then again, I haven't interviewed in quite a while (love my current job) so...

> Could it be because the clarification questions are perceived as not understanding?

Sure but taking that as "the asker is an idiot" rather than "I may not have explained this well" is all too common (I know I've been guilty of this more than a handful of times.)

> Would it help if one prefaced with something like [...]

I think if you're having to carefully phrase your (reasonable, obvs.) questions in order to avoid upsetting the interviewer, that's a bit of a red flag, no?