As someone moving from the U.S. (possibly) to London in a few years, that's actually pretty comforting. I'm mostly self taught so any hardcore CS problems will throw me. I CAN reverse a linked list, but only if it's a doubly linked list :). (Ok, kidding, I can reverse a singly linked list, but ask me what heapsort is and I would definitely have to look it up.)
This is precisely why they use reverse a linked list- it's common enough that everyone understands it, and if not, it can be quickly explained, and everyone understands that you 'just need to flip' the arrows, yet we get many people who don't get it.
