>"Or am I even higher level than that and can think in terms of the abstraction of python. I think sometimes this is not clarified." //

Which may be the point, they want you to ask "what am I optimising for", to be aware that there's no simple best answer without needing prompting. Also that the optimisation might be at the business level, like time critical implementation, or use of excess resources gleaned from some other part of the corporation.

So instead of telling you they want a one-liner, you saying "what are our constraints; how long have I got to implement it, ...".