It sounds like they are trying to do exactly what you suggest: We’ll ask you to solve some coding questions in a language and text editor of your choice. Feel

It sounds like they are trying to do exactly what you suggest: We’ll ask you to solve some coding questions in a language and text editor of your choice. Feel free to bring your own laptop, or we’ll be happy to provide one. Notably, we ask candidates not to compile or run their code during this exercise, and not to refer to online resources. Our goal is not to simulate day-to-day software development — where we read docs and write lots of tests! — but rather to see how you reason about your code and input cases. For that same reason, we won’t ding you for superficial syntax errors or misremembered function names. After leaving you to work through the questions on your own, we’ll sit down together and talk through your solutions (including any ideas you didn’t have time to commit to code). In any case, all I'm disputing is the idea that formal reasoning about algorithms (without stressing function names and compilation) is a useless skill. We have tools that make it unnecessary for many entry level devs, but that doesn't mean everyone can ignore it.