The timer is what is bad about this.

I do not care about the question.

As you say, any competent programmer could solve this in a few seconds, if they are proficient, or minutes if they are not.

In my opinion, they should not put a count down because they are interrupting the programmer’s flow. If they really want to measure time, they do it without interrupting the programmer, hide the timer, let them take as much time as they want/need to solve these problems. Then, at the end of the quiz, show them how long it took them to give a proper solution, and take in consideration that time to score them.

If Alice solved 10 problems in 10 minutes, and Bob solved the same problems in 15 minutes, maybe there is something there that is worth highlighting in their profiles. Maybe Alice is able to analyze this type of questions much faster than Bob, and if that matters to the recruiters or potential employers, then allow the candidate to use that in their favor.

However, if Bob actually knew the answer, but they ran out of time to select an option, that seems unfair.