Given time alone in a quiet room with a computer, these are not huge demands. Trying to do this in front of people, on a whiteboard, with limited time, and havi

Given time alone in a quiet room with a computer, these are not huge demands. Trying to do this in front of people, on a whiteboard, with limited time, and having to explain yourself to idiots is indeed, the very definition of "stupid interview questions". This would, however, work great in other professions. For example, why don't we test surgeons' skills by giving them a chainsaw to cut up the patient with, in a room full of germs, while they have to explain to a 3 year old what they're doing? Oh, and always ask the surgeon to operate on a body part he doesn't specialize in, hasn't worked on in 20 years, and will likely never work on in his lifetime. This would hire us great surgeons because it hires us great programmers! I mean, just look at all the amazingly good code out there!