Why does the employees hired date include %2000% in the answers document, if the format is Year-Month-Day? Wouldn't 2000% work?

Hi Justin! Thanks for reaching out. Yes, you are right. The '%' wildcard is needed only after 2000. As this will give you as a result only dates from year 2000. Fine. Note: It is added from both sides because if someone uses a different date format, it wil still work. It is somehow more profesionally and companies make their code to be more user friendly. Hope this helps. Best, Tsvetelin