No it's not. Some parts of a phone book search resemble a binary search, but choosing your pivot and processing the last few pages do not. I've never seen someone not do a linear scan at some point.

But all that's irrelevant to my point. Asking for a bog-standard solution to an industry-standard question is in no way a demonstration of someone's originality. You don't ask it to prove that they aren't doing "mimicry" you ask it to prove that they can, and thus are capable of learning the basic tools of their trade from others.